


Feedback Loops

by andthatisterrible



Series: Chaos Theory [2]
Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2018-11-28 11:26:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 52,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11416974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andthatisterrible/pseuds/andthatisterrible
Summary: One-shot additions to Sliding Towards Chaos. Mostly smut with feelings but there's a few T-rated chapters.





	1. After the Party

**Author's Note:**

> At some point I made a firm decision to leave sliding towards chaos as rated T, but there were a few scenes in particular I kinda wanted to go back and elaborate on. If smut isn't your thing you might not get a lot out of this but hopefully if you do choose to read you enjoy.
> 
> Edit: I've added a rating to the beginning of each chapter so if you're looking for just smut or just not smut you'll have an indicator.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place between chapters 28 and 29 after Root and Shaw get back from the fancy party. Very little context needed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to [Jenocide](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Jenocide/pseuds/Jenocide) for beta-ing for me.
> 
> Chapter is rated E.

Root tapped her small purse impatiently against her leg as the hotel elevator started up, ascending far too slowly for her liking. She spared a sideways glance at the other occupant of the elevator car who stood on the far side, almost up against the back wall. Shaw turned her head away quickly when she looked at her, firmly locking her eyes on the doors.

Root fought down a smile.

“You're awfully quiet, sweetie.”

“As compared to when?” There was a tiny note of amusement in Shaw's voice and Root did smile this time, admitting the point. Time for a different approach.

She leaned casually against the side of the elevator, letting the high slit in the side of the long blue dress she had on expose her leg most of the way up her thigh.

Shaw shifted slightly on the other side of the car and Root’s smile widened.

When the elevator came to a halt and the doors opened onto their floor, she straightened up and took the lead. She could feel Shaw's eyes on her the entire way down the hall to their room and while she fished the key card out of her purse and unlocked the door to let them in.

The second they were inside, she reached down to pull off her heels.

“Well, that was certainly fun.”

Shaw didn't look impressed as she kicked off her own shoes and pulled off her socks. “Not really my type of party.”

Root had mostly meant the part where she'd tased the host and locked him in his own linen closet, but Shaw didn't need to know about _that_ little incident yet.

“So what _is_ your type of party?” She tossed aside her light jacket, leaving her shoulders bare in the sleeveless blue dress that Shaw had been admiring so much all night. She smoothed the dress over her hips with her hands, watching how Shaw tracked the motion with her eyes. She knew _exactly_ what type of party Shaw liked.

Just to drive the point home a little more, she made a show of slipping her leg out of the high slit in the side of her dress to unbuckle the ridiculous thigh holster she'd tried out. She was going to call that a failed experiment (too much chaffing), but the slight widening of Shaw's eyes made it momentarily worth it.

She dropped the stupid holster on the floor and Shaw looked back up, eyes dark and intense now. Root grinned mischievously at her and Shaw’s face twisted into a scowl.

“Something on your mind, Shaw?”

“Not really.” It didn't sound too convincing, especially not when Shaw let her own jacket drop to the floor and approached Root, moving into her space aggressively enough that she had no choice but to take a step back.

Shaw smirked, pleased with her retreat, and stepped forward again. Root's smile widened, and she let Shaw back her up against the wall next to the hotel room door. A tiny gasp escaped her when her back hit the wall and Shaw made a noise low in her throat in response, putting her hands on the wall on either side of Root to trap her there.

Apparently the effort she'd put into winding Shaw up on the car ride back had been time well spent.

“Did you like the dress?” Root asked, soft and teasing.

She knew damn well that Shaw had been staring at her in it half the night, and she'd be lying if she said she hadn't taken a good look at the tight fit of the tailored black dress pants and button down shirt Shaw was wearing. It'd been nice to have an excuse for both of them to dress up a bit.

Shaw's hands left the wall to rest lightly on her hips, bunching the material of the dress up just a bit between her fingers.

“Guess it's okay.” One of her hands started wandering lower down Root's side and her breath hitched a little in expectation.

“Well, if it's only okay, maybe I should take it off.”

“No,” Shaw said firmly. “Not yet.”

This could be fun.

“No?” Root repeated, raising her eyebrows. “What’d you have in mind, sweetie? I suppose you _are_ already undressing me with your eyes.”

Shaw’s hand drifted down to the slit in the side of her dress, brushing the fabric aside to run a hand along her thigh, a promising warm press of skin.

“Wouldn't you rather be surprised?” The hand that wasn't scratching lightly along Root's thigh slid up her side. Shaw's thumb pressed hard on her ribs right below her breast, and even through the dress the sensation was enough to make Root’s pulse speed up.

“I've never been much of one for surprises,” Root said, concentrating on keeping her voice steady. One of Shaw's fingers was rubbing back and forth along the outside of her thigh, tracing the bottom edge of her underwear in a distracting way.

“Surprises are only fun when you're the one showing up with a taser in someone else's apartment in the middle of the night, huh?” Amusement danced in Shaw's eyes and her fingernails dug into Root's leg and dragged down a little, leaving small stinging lines in their wake.

“Okay, Shaw--” Root leaned in so she could whisper directly into her ear. “--surprise me.”

Shaw’s fingers twitched slightly against her leg before she leaned in to place an almost gentle kiss on Root's neck, turning it into a harsh bite after a second.

Root exhaled sharply at the press of teeth, the pain pulsing through her and turning into something else. She slid one hand behind Shaw's head to hold her in place, leaning into the pain.

Shaw released her hold and then pressed another kiss to what was definitely going to be an impressive bite mark the next morning. “Figured I might start by fucking you against the wall.” Her voice was deeper than usual.

Apparently Shaw had given up on surprises for the evening, not that Root was complaining in the slightest.

She reached up to toy with the collar of Shaw's shirt. “Mmm, thought that might be where this was headed.” The bite on her neck still stung pleasantly and an excited shiver ran through her as she thought about how it would be on her neck for days, a visible sign of Shaw's connection with her.

“Then I'm gonna rip that damn dress off of you.” Shaw lowered her head to mouth lightly at the top of Root's breast, exposed by the low cut of her dress.

“Sounds exciting.” Root tried to keep her voice even despite the feeling of Shaw’s mouth and tongue trailing a hot path across her chest. “And after you've finished destroying my very expensive dress?”

Shaw paused and pulled back from her momentarily. “Root, we both know you stole this fucking dress.”

“Mmm, seems likely. That was clearly very wrong of me and it's so generous of you to help me destroy the evidence.” She tugged lightly at Shaw's collar to encourage her to continue where she'd left off. “What will you do after that, Sameen?”

“Thinking I'd toss you on the bed.” Shaw's hand roamed higher, toying with the waistband of her underwear. Her other hand slid down to Root's hip, pressing her lightly, but firmly into the wall. “We can see where things go after that.”

“Well, _that_ certainly sounds like a party.” She inhaled sharply when Shaw hooked her fingers into the top of her underwear and started sliding them down her legs. She obligingly kicked the offending garment aside when it reached the floor.

Shaw leaned up so their faces were centimeters apart, her breath warm on Root's lips.“Oh, I _definitely_ know how to party.”

She gave the slightest hint of a smile and then her lips were on Root's, her body pinning her hard against the wall. Her thigh slid between Root's legs as much as the dress allowed, and Root pressed into it, an eager moan escaping her lips into the kiss at the contact. She felt Shaw echo the noise and the hand on her hip tightened, encouraging her to move against Shaw's leg.

She'd figured out early on that Shaw loved it when she was loud, each whimper and moan driving her a little more crazy, and so she never held back. And, if she was being honest with herself, she didn't think she _could_ hold back where Shaw was involved.

The entire dress situation meant she wasn't getting nearly the friction she needed to get anywhere and she dropped her hands down to Shaw's ass, squeezing hard and trying to press her in even tighter.

She made a small frustrated noise when Shaw pulled her leg back, but it turned into gasp when Shaw's hand left her hip to move between her legs. Her eyes shut and her head fell back against the wall as Shaw's fingers dipped inside of her briefly before moving back up to rub firm circles around her clit. She tried to grind into her fingers, do something to alleviate the tension thrumming through her body, but Shaw's free arm moved to pin her hips, hold her still.

With Shaw recovering from her injuries for so long, they’d been forced to be somewhat restrained in their physical activities and damn did it feel good to have Shaw's hands on her again. How had she gone without this for so long?

She opened her eyes and leaned back down for another kiss, determined to take as much as she could. Shaw met her lips, eagerly, and when her tongue pushed into Root's mouth she matched the movement by slowly sliding a finger into her.

Root broke away from the kiss with a moan, digging her fingers into Shaw's waist when she added a second finger and then paused, taking the time to let Root adjust.

“Fuck,” Root said softly, reveling in the feeling of Shaw's fingers, already so deep inside her. She'd been worked up since their little impromptu makeout session in the basement at the party, more than ready for this, but she was touched that Shaw always started slowly, carefully, like this even when they were playing much rougher than they were now.

They might enjoy shoving each other around, leaving bites and bruises stamped on each other's skin for days, but even when they were at their most wild, there was always an edge of control to Shaw's actions. If she was hurting Root it was because she meant to and because they were both enjoying it, not because she got careless or carried away.

When she met Shaw's eyes they were still dark and full of heat but there was a question in them now. Root answered her with a low chuckle and by pulling her dress up enough on the slit side that she could wrap her leg around Shaw, pull her in. That was all the encouragement Shaw needed to start a slow, steady rhythm with her fingers. Her free hand stopped pinning Root's hips so she could wrap it around the back of her neck to draw her in for another bruising kiss.

She matched the movements of Shaw's fingers with her hips, meeting each thrust and tightening her grip on Shaw's ass, trying to encourage her to pick up the pace. Shaw's hand ground down against her clit after each thrust, fingers curling inside her and sending little flares of pleasure shooting through her. She finally moved her hands, wrapping her arms around Shaw so she could claw at her back through her shirt.

Shaw’s breath hissed out in approval at the feeling of Root's nails, and she sped up the movement of her fingers, roughly palming her breast through the dress. She let out a deep, satisfied groan that went through Root like a bolt of heat, her muscles clenching around Shaw's fingers. She wasn't going to last much longer like this.

Shaw changed the angle of her fingers ever so slightly and Root dug her nails harder into her back, desperation building up inside of her as her body trembled around Shaw.

She leaned forward to bury her face in the side of Shaw's neck, opening her mouth against it to taste the salt in her sweat, feel the vibration of the small noises Shaw was even now trying to muffle. She bit down, hard, and Shaw's fingers froze for half a second before she pulled out and added a third finger, slamming back into her and god she felt so full and tight around Shaw’s fingers and she couldn't even focus enough to keep on biting Shaw, was only able to lean her head on her shoulder, the short needy whimpers escaping from her throat only seeming to encourage Shaw more.

“Sameen.” It came out as a ragged moan and she heard Shaw groan in response before driving her fingers in again and grinding her palm hard against her clit and then Root was coming, her body shaking and tensing around Shaw.

Shaw’s fingers worked her through her orgasm, slow and steady until she came down.

She went limp after a moment, her leg sliding back down to the floor, her eyes peacefully shut, and her breathing still ragged and uneven. Shaw held her up, letting her recover enough to feel steady on her feet again. She let out a small contented noise when Shaw kissed her neck again, her tongue licking at the sweat she found there, and Root’s foggy brain cleared enough to imagine Shaw's tongue somewhere else. That sounded like a very nice idea right now, though the dress would definitely have to go for that.

She was wondering if she should call Shaw's attention to the toys she'd thoughtfully packed in her bag, when a ripping noise and a cold draft on her side made her open her eyes, startled.

Shaw had ripped her dress open halfway from the slit to the top. She seemed to be stuck there, some seam in the fabric not cooperating with her attempts to tear through it.

“Having some trouble?” Root murmured, fighting down a grin.

Shaw glared at her and redoubled her grip on the material, straining against its resistance. Root took a moment to admire the muscles flexing in her arms, the tendons standing out in her neck. She wanted to run her tongue along them, bite down again. The dress gave and ripped the rest of the way up; Shaw tore away the remains of it, letting them fall to the floor.

She looked so damned pleased with herself that Root had no choice but to grab her by her collar again and yank hard on it, watching with satisfaction as buttons flew across the room.

Shaw glanced down at the remains of her shirt, outrage on her face, and Root couldn't hold back a laugh. She ran her hands across Shaw's rib cage and around her back to unhook her bra.

“Fair's fair, Sameen.”

Shaw shrugged off her ruined shirt and helped Root pull her bra off. “Whatever.”

She submitted to a few enjoyable minutes of Root toying with her breasts before she grabbed her wrist and tugged her after her towards the bed. She pushed Root lightly so she sat down on the edge and then stepped between her spread legs, standing over her.

Root looked up, meeting her eyes and exhaling softly when Shaw's fingers glided along her bare shoulders, up her neck, and cupped her face. Shaw leaned down to kiss her again, a thrill running through her at how suddenly gentle she was being. She loved it when Shaw was rough, pushing her into walls and furniture, pinning her down and fucking her hard, but this other side of her was intoxicating, like a secret Shaw would only share with her.

Shaw must have had the same idea she'd had a moment ago because she broke the kiss off and sank to her knees in front of Root, pulling her forward a little and pushing her legs further apart before burying her face between her legs. Shaw let out a deep, guttural noise of approval at the taste of her and went to work licking and sucking until Root fell back against the bed, her fingers threaded through Shaw's hair and her legs wrapping around her. Her back arched up off the sheets when Shaw wrapped her lips around her clit and slid two fingers back into her and it was only a matter of minutes before her hips were jerking and she was coming hard again, digging her fingers into Shaw's scalp and pulling her face against her until she collapsed back onto the sheets in a satisfied, boneless heap.

When she'd recovered a little she propped herself up on her elbows to look down at Shaw, still kneeling between her legs, licking her fingers clean and looking quite pleased with herself. Root sat up all the way so she could lean forward and kiss the smug expression off Shaw's face, enjoying the taste of herself on her lips.

“Now _that_ was way more my type of party,” Shaw said when the kiss broke off.

Root ran her fingers through the mess she'd made of Shaw's hair. “You wanna come up here and let me return the favor?”

“Hell, yeah.” Shaw climbed back to her feet, fingers already busy unbuttoning her pants and shoving them down her legs. The pants had been very form-fitting and she had to peel them off, Root watching, enraptured. The boy shorts joined the mess of discarded clothes on the floor and then Shaw was standing naked in front of her.

She took a moment to take in every inch of her, the hard muscles and soft curves, the disarray of her hair pulled partly out of the ponytail she always had it in, the light sheen of sweat on her skin, and her lips, full and swollen. She’d never stop being filled with wonder at the sight of her.

“You gonna stare at me all night or what?” Shaw sounded amused.

Root made a slight tsking noise to scold her for ruining the moment and then wrapped her hands around Shaw's hips and leaned forward to kiss and nip lightly along one hipbone. Shaw's hand curved around her neck, thumb resting on her pulse point, making Root's breath hitch a little at the reminder of what they'd gotten up to the night before. Normally she'd be all in favor of more breath play, but she'd already come twice and she'd barely gotten to touch Shaw at all which was just unfair.

She straightened up and tugged at Shaw's arm to pull her onto the bed.

Shaw hesitated, which was highly unusual for her, and met her eyes with a small frown.

“How much work would it be to take your hair down?”

It'd taken her forever to put it up so it left her shoulders bare, but letting it down would be easier. “Might take a few minutes.” There were an annoying number of pins to deal with.

“I can help.” There was a question in Shaw's eyes again and Root smiled at her and nodded.

She hadn't quite pictured the evening going this way: Shaw sitting behind her on the bed, pulling pins out of her hair and smoothing out the long locks as they came free, but she definitely wasn't complaining. She was always surprised when Shaw was gentle like this, not because she didn't think she could be, but because she was willing to let someone see her being even a little bit soft. Because she was willing to let Root see that.

“How long did this even take?” Shaw asked, her breath warm on Root's neck for a second as she leaned in to see what she was doing.

“You don't want to know.” She shivered when Shaw's fingers ran along her neck, tracing a freed strand of hair. There was one final tug and she felt a small sense of relief as the last of her hair fell loose. She reached up to finger brush through it, pull out some of the tangles left behind, but Shaw grabbed her wrists and stopped her. Root's hands were pulled down and placed on the bed on either side of her before being released.

And then Shaw was brushing the hair back behind her good ear and kissing the side of her neck, and Root couldn't help but lean back into her, humming in approval when Shaw's arms wrapped around her to palm her breasts.

It felt so good here with Shaw pressed warm against her back, her mouth at her throat, and her hands on her breasts. Her breath caught a little when one hand broke away and started a path down her stomach.

“Shaw…” Honestly Shaw was the worst at taking turns and at this rate she wouldn't get to have any fun with her at all before she passed out.

“In a minute,” Shaw breathed in her ear.

Shaw took her time now, her fingers curling inside of Root achingly slow, her hand teasing and pinching her breast almost enough, and her hips thrusting slightly against her ass. When Root tried to move her hands from the bed Shaw growled a warning into her ear, so she left them there and sank back into Shaw, letting the slowly building waves of pleasure carry her away.

When she came this time it was far more intense than her last two orgasms had been, and by the time she recovered she was lying on her back on the bed again, Shaw lying next to her, propped up on one arm and watching her quietly.

“Are you actually going to let me return the favor this time or do I have to go get the taser and zip ties out of my bag?” Root asked, smiling lazily up at her.

“Can you even move enough to do that?” Shaw prodded her in the side with one finger and grinned. “Bet you can't even stand up right now.”

Shaw might have had a point there, but Root wasn't about to let that ruin her fun.

“Plenty I can do from here without even sitting up.”

Shaw’s eyes widened in anticipation when she caught her meaning and she shuffled over eagerly to throw a leg over Root, sitting on her hips and leaning down to kiss her fiercely, grinding against her in small circles. Root enjoyed the kiss for a few long moments before tugging impatiently at Shaw, pulling her forward until she hovered above her face, bracing herself with her arms.

Root bit gently at her thighs, rolling her tongue over the tiny red marks she made, enjoying being surrounded by the sight and smell of Shaw.

Shaw was so wet and ready and that was all thanks to her, and damn if that didn't make her just a bit proud of herself, the evidence that Shaw wanted her this much.

A tug at her hair reminded her there was unfinished business to attend to and she stretched her neck up, moaning at her first taste of Shaw before thrusting her tongue into her. She started a pattern of alternating between licking, sucking, and thrusting, using her tongue in all the ways she knew Shaw liked best, enjoying the curses and moans she was pulling from her. Honestly how could Shaw even pretend that Root was the loud one here?

She dug her nails into Shaw's thighs and dragged them down harshly. Shaw made a noise suspiciously like a whine and her hips bucked into Root.

They'd been doing this long enough that she knew Shaw's body, knew exactly how to drive her crazy and work her up. When Shaw's legs started trembling on either side of her head she slid two fingers into her and wrapped her lips around her clit, sucking hard.

Shaw’s whole body spasmed when she came, suffocating Root a little as she collapsed on her before rolling to the side to lie panting on the mattress.

Root decided it was her turn for creepy staring and sat up cross legged next to her to watch her, drink in the dazed look in her eyes and the locks of hair plastered to her face. She put her fingers, still drenched with Shaw, into her mouth and sucked on them enthusiastically.

Shaw eyed her in amusement. “Enjoying yourself?”

Root pulled her fingers out of her mouth and grinned at her. “Definitely.”

She bent over to kiss her again, knowing from experience how much Shaw enjoyed tasting herself on her mouth. She was a little breathless when she pulled back.

“You want to go again?”

Shaw actually paused to consider, a first for her, and then shook her head. “I'm beat. And everything still hurts a bunch. The not fun kind of hurts.”

Root's eyes trailed over the mostly-healed red marks from the bullet wounds on Shaw's arm, side, and leg. They had to be causing Shaw a great deal of discomfort for her to admit they hurt. She reached out her hand to brush one finger lightly over the mark on her side, careful to keep her expression under control. Shaw watched her without comment, her eyes flicking between Root's hand and her face.

“We need to get up early tomorrow,” Shaw said at last. “Should probably go to sleep now.”

Root nodded in agreement and watched Shaw move up the bed and pull back the covers. She _was_ really damn tired, but these days she was always exhausted.

“You coming?” Shaw asked.

“Already did. Several times.” It was a terrible line, even for her, but she couldn't _not_ use it when the opportunity presented itself so well.

It got the eye roll she'd expected it would and the small spike of concern she'd felt eased up as she crawled up the bed to join Shaw. She climbed under the covers next to her and then moved away a few inches, giving her some space. They'd been sleeping more or less curled up together since Shaw’d gone and almost died for her, but if she was in pain tonight….

Shaw gave an annoyed huff and dragged her closer by one arm. “You're not going to hurt me, Root. And if you do, trust me, I'll let you know about it.”

She didn't need more of an invitation than that to curl up next to Shaw and lay her head on her chest, sighing happily when Shaw's hand rested on the back of her head, her fingers lightly pulling tangles from her hair. It was still new to her, this side of Shaw that was comfortable with touching her this way, and she couldn't believe that it was real, that she'd ended up here with Shaw like this.

“Can't believe you ruined my shirt,” Shaw grumbled.

Root snorted quietly. “Sweetie, you'd just finished mauling my dress. I was only politely showing the same level of appreciation for your outfit.”

“Hmph. I liked that shirt.”

“You liked my dress, too, so I figure some part of you is okay with having clothes you like ending up shredded on the floor.” She settled herself more firmly against Shaw, enjoying the warmth of her skin and the smell of her sweat.

“It was a pretty great dress,” Shaw admitted.

“She thought you'd like it.”

“The Machine is helping you pick out dresses to wear for me now? Isn't she a bit busy trying to save the world or whatever?”

The Machine had been invaluable on the dresses front; She'd put together an entire spreadsheet on the subject for Root before She'd decided on the one that was currently lying ruined on the floor. Definitely worth it.

“She just wanted to make sure we both had a good time.” She bit her lip in amusement. “Did She choose well?”

“Go to sleep, weirdo.”

There was a slight undercurrent of affection in Shaw's voice and when Root fell asleep a few minutes later she still had a smile on her lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I initially meant for this to be a lot rougher than it ended up going, but eh. Plenty of other scenes for the rough stuff. Mostly I really wanted to write Shaw trying to rip Root's dress off all sexily and getting thwarted in her attempt.
> 
> There are one or two other scenes I kind of want to go back and fill in. Could happen.


	2. Ending the Day With a Bang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Picks up directly from the end of chapter 22 of stc. The team had raided the Samaritan training facility earlier that day and Root and Shaw are in bed taking a look at the data they stole.
> 
> I make no apologies for the title, Root would think it was hilarious.
> 
> Chapter is rated E.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These aren't going chronologically as you may have noticed. I'm just writing whatever I get inspiration for. So you don't have to go back for context...at this point Root was staying at Shaw's regularly, and they were sleeping in the same bed but always on opposite sides.
> 
> Dunno if people want me to include any sort of content warnings...there's nothing too crazy going on here. Some light bondage.

In the aftermath of their very successful raid on the Samaritan training facility, Shaw had decided to overlook the no-laptops-in-the-bedroom ban for the night, especially since Root had been using hers to pick through all the data they'd stolen.

It was only a temporary relaxation of the rule, after all. She wasn't willing to risk a repeat of the night when she'd been rudely awakened at 3am and rolled over to see Root, her face glowing and ethereal from the light of her laptop screen, her eyes bloodshot, muttering to herself while her fingers flew over the keys. She'd looked like some kind of demon or ghost except with nerdy glasses and black nail polish, which were probably the only things that allowed Shaw's enraged and not-fully-awake brain to override her first instinct to sock the demonic interloper in the jaw.

The laptop ban had gone into full effect the next morning when Shaw had given Root the choice of either never using her laptop in bed again or having all her electronics thrown off the fire escape. And until tonight, Root hadn't tested Shaw's resolve on that.

But the files she'd been going through from their raid had proven interesting enough that Shaw had even scooted across the bed to get a closer look. Also, since she was fully awake this time, she got to appreciate Root looking extra nerdy, bent over her laptop with her stupidly sexy glasses sliding down her nose. Still, rules were rules and Root could look at the damn stuff tomorrow.

“Put this back out in the living room,” Shaw said, tapping the top of the laptop. “You’re gonna have plenty of time in the next two weeks to stare at the screen til you go blind.” She slid over to her side of the bed and flopped down on her back, ready to crash for the night.

The bed shifted slightly and there was a noise that sounded suspiciously like a laptop being set on the floor.

“If I hear you typing in the middle of the night…” Shaw threatened.

“You’ll what?” Root asked.

The bed shifted again and then Root was hovering above her, propped up on her hands and knees. The glasses were unfortunately gone, but the devious look on her face promised that Shaw wouldn't have much time to think about that.

“It’ll be a surprise.”

“Oh yeah?” Root asked. She leaned down as if to kiss her, but stopped just short, a mischievous smile on her lips.

That wasn't going to fly. Root didn't get to break the laptop rule and then tease her.

She moved without warning, grabbing Root and using the momentum to flip them over. Root let out a startled yelp as her back hit the mattress, her disorientation giving Shaw all the time she needed to straddle her and pin her wrists to the bed.

“Maybe I need to start giving you some hand-to-hand training,” Shaw said, greatly amused by Root's petulant little frown. “That was sad.”

Root wriggled underneath her.

“You can start right now if you want.”

Shaw nodded, trying to look serious.

“That was the plan.” She leaned down to brush her lips against Root’s, enjoying how she chased her lips after the brief moment of contact, and the small frustrated noise she made when Shaw moved out of reach. “I mean it about the laptop, though. I hear it even once, I throw the damn thing against a wall.”

“Mmm, you could throw me against a wall, instead. Sounds fun.”

No arguments from Shaw on that point.

“Think I can manage both.”

She straightened up so she was sitting on Root's hips and released her hold on her wrists. The tank top Root had chosen to sleep in tonight looked suspiciously familiar, but before she had time to comment on it Root's hands were fisted in Shaw's shirt, tugging it until she gave in and pulled it over her head, dropping it on Root's face just because she could.

“That wasn't very nice.” Root's eyes were dancing with humor as she tossed the shirt aside.

“Got the impression you weren’t in the mood for nice.”

It took Root a second to respond because she was gaping at Shaw's breasts like she’d never seen them before. Shaw flicked her in the side with one finger. Honestly, she was just fucking hopeless.

“Hmmm.” One of Root's hands found its way to her hip and her fingers ghosted up her side running lightly across her breast with the slightest of touches that brought goosebumps to Shaw's skin. “Definitely not in the mood for nice.”

She smirked a little and then harshly pinched Shaw's nipple. Shaw inhaled sharply through her nose at the small burst of pain. It hurt in all the right ways and damn if that didn't make her want to let Root just go to town on her, but….

She intercepted Root's hand and pressed it firmly back onto the mattress before leaning forward to kiss her, sucking on her bottom lip and then pushing into her mouth insistently with her tongue. Root sighed happily into the kiss, her free hand sneaking up to palm at Shaw's other breast because it was statistically impossible for Root to keep her hands to herself for even half a second.

This, Shaw decided, was really the best way to wrap up a day that had included assault, robbery, and gun fights. Root felt so damn good under her, warm and soft and squirming just the right amount to drive her nuts. She wedged her hand down under Root to squeeze her ass, grinding down into her with her hips as she did.

Back during the all day sexathon at the CIA safe house she’d caught on to Root's discomfort at having her movements restrained for more than a few minutes outside of preliminary foreplay, so she was surprised by Root's slight look of disappointment when she made it a point to release the wrist she'd pinned down.

She eased up enough to raise as eyebrow in question at her. Root gave her an approving nod and Shaw wrapped her fingers back around her wrist, feeling her pulse jump under her hand. Hey, if Root was up for it she was definitely game.

“Actually…” Root looked thoughtful. “You still have those cuffs, sweetie?”

The cuffs in question were one of the items that had made the trip from her old apartment. “You want me to get them?”

“Could be fun.”

Shaw rolled off the bed and rummaged around in the drawer where she'd stashed all the sex toys until she found the pair of nylon cuffs with velcro fasteners shoved all the way in the back. They weren't her favorites for herself so they didn't get a lot of use, but the one time she'd handcuffed Root before they'd been what she'd chosen. Mostly because they were designed so the person wearing them could get themselves out of them easily as long as their hands were close enough together, and also because the chain between the two cuffs was fairly long. She'd figured that might be better for Root than some of her other cuffs.

She fastened one cuff around Root's wrist and looped the other through the bar on the headboard. Some part of her wanted to ask if she was really sure about this, but she held her tongue, knowing Root wouldn't appreciate the question. She did, however, keep an eye on her face, trying to search discreetly for any signs of discomfort. She patted the second cuff into place and Root tugged experimentally at them. There was more than enough give for her to easily undo the cuffs herself and she seemed satisfied, relaxing back onto the bed and looking up at Shaw with a challenging grin.

“Not polite to make a lady wait, Sameen.”

Shaw rolled her eyes before swinging a leg back over Root's hips and settling down on her. If Root was being her normal bratty self then she was probably fine.

She started moving again, rocking her hips against Root and marking up her neck, sucking hard enough to leave hickies since she knew Root loved flaunting the marks she left all over her like they were awards she'd won or something. Good thing Reese was the most oblivious person ever.

Root hummed in approval, matching the rhythm of her hips with her own and Shaw shifted to lie down on her and slide her thigh between her legs so they both could get a bit more friction.

She moved down from Root's neck to her collarbone, scraping her teeth across it lightly and then running her tongue along the red marks she'd left. Root made a small noise in the back of her throat at the touch of Shaw's tongue, but a glance up at her confirmed it was definitely a good noise so Shaw continued her path downwards.

Root hadn't taken off her tanktop (Shaw's tanktop, to be completely accurate), but Shaw figured she could work with that and mouthed at one of Root's nipples through the material. She bit down gently and Root must have liked that because it got a good whimper out of her. She sucked Root's nipple into her mouth through the damp cotton of the shirt and bit down harder this time.

“Fuck, Shaw.” Root’s voice was strained and she could hear her pulling against the cuffs a bit. She let go of the wet fabric and shoved the shirt up enough that she could actually get her mouth on her, taking her time before switching to the other breast and biting again. She flicked her tongue against the nipple and relished the little sounds Root made and the way her hips kept losing their rhythm against her thigh each time her tongue touched her. She could feel how damn wet Root already was right through her underwear and she was getting there herself with the constant friction building up a low simmer of heat inside her, but, she decided, it was time to switch things up a bit.

Root made a noise of protest when Shaw withdrew her leg and moved back on the bed enough that she could pull off her boy shorts and toss them aside. She left Root's underwear in place for now and sat back on her hips.

“Such a tease,” Root murmured. She looked a little dazed and her face and neck were pleasantly flushed.

Root was calling _her_ a tease? _Root_? Shaw stared in disbelief while Root grinned up at her, obviously aware of her aggravation. Well, if Root wanted teasing, Shaw was more than happy to indulge her.

“Oh, that wasn't teasing.” She started toying with one of her own breasts. Root's eyes instantly snapped to focus on the movement. She swallowed hard and licked her lips, hands tugging lightly against the cuffs.

“No, I think teasing would be something more like this.” Her other hand found its way between her own legs and started rubbing firm circles.

“Sameen…” Root's voice came out in a whine. She took a deep breath and when she spoke again her voice was back under control. “You know, if you wanted to come up here I could give you a hand with that. Well,--” She shook the cuffs a little. “--not an actual hand.”

“Think I'd rather come right where I am.” Shaw sped up her movements, her hips jerking a little from time to time. She took a second to appreciate how flustered Root looked, chewing on her bottom lip, her hands clenched so tightly into fists that her knuckles were white.

“You doing okay there, Root? You look a bit...distracted.” Root spent so much time and effort constantly flirting and tormenting her almost every day that this small amount of payback was glorious. Root would probably spend the next week grabbing her ass in front of Reese as revenge but this was totally worth it.

“Getting a little bored with nothing to do here,” Root said, though the breathy quality of her voice and the way she was twitching under Shaw suggested she was anything but.

“That's too bad.” Shaw slid two fingers into herself and let a somewhat exaggerated moan fall from her lips. She rocked her hips hard against her hand, knowing that she was leaving a wet patch all over Root and that it was probably pure torture for her.

Root was squirming quite a bit beneath her now and her eyes were locked squarely on Shaw's fingers. Her lips parted slightly and her breathing grew more ragged as Shaw increased the pace of her fingers, letting out another overly loud moan.

She was pretty damned pleased with how this was all turning out, but Root had the nerve to have called her a tease and she'd hate to disappoint her, so maybe she could push this just a bit more. She reached behind herself with her free hand and started running her fingers along the inside of one of Root's thighs. Root jumped at the touch and her legs fell open, encouraging Shaw to keep going, but Shaw only rubbed lazy patterns along her thigh, refusing to take the hint.

She was getting close now, Root's frantic movements under her driving her to the edge. A few more thrusts with her fingers and some pressure on her clit and she was clenching down hard and falling forward onto Root as she came. She pressed her face against Root's chest as she recovered, enjoying the way Root's stomach muscles quivered and tensed when she blew a light stream of air across her skin. Once her breathing evened out, she sat back up to get a good look at her handiwork.

All Root's efforts to keep her expressions under control had finally completely failed. She looked absolutely desperate, all flushed and sweaty as she tried to roll her hips up into Shaw to get any sort of relief she could. Shaw grinned at her, pleased that she'd turned her into this much of a mess while barely touching her at all. Maybe she could stand to be a bit merciful now that she'd made her point about this whole teasing nonsense. She brought her wet and sticky fingers up to Root's face and let her suck them into her mouth.

Root’s mouth felt hot and wet as she swirled her tongue around her fingers and then bit down, hard, but Shaw was still riding the warm high of her orgasm so the pain just felt damn good and made her grind down on Root again. With her other hand, she palmed one of Root's breasts roughly. Root arched up into her touch and moaned around the fingers in her mouth and god her tongue felt so good and Shaw needed to feel it somewhere else immediately.

She pulled her fingers back, drawing a slight noise of protest from Root, and pushed up onto her knees so she could move up Root's body. She raised an eyebrow in question and Root nodded emphatically enough that Shaw almost chuckled.

“Oh god, yes.” Root was well past the point of trying to preserve her aloof demeanor.

Shaw groaned at the first touch of Root's tongue against her, one hand curling around the headboard and the other slipping under Root's head. Root's mouth was hot and wonderful against her and all the wet sounds of Root's tongue and lips playing with her combined with her muffled moans of enjoyment were hitting her just right.

Root had always been unfairly good at this but Shaw wasn't going to complain too much since she got to enjoy the benefits.

She gasped involuntarily when Root's tongue flicked against her clit and sent sparks racing through her. “Oh, fuck me.”

Root tried to say something that came out unintelligible which, Shaw decided, was probably for the best since it had undoubtedly been some terrible one-liner. She tightened her grip on Root's hair and rocked her hips into her a bit to convey she was unimpressed with whatever it was she'd said and then completely forgot about the whole thing as Root redoubled her efforts with her tongue and just the slightest hint of teeth and Shaw's whole body tensed up as she came again with a slight shout.

As soon as she regained control of her body, she slid off of Root to flop on the mattress next to her. She gave herself a few seconds before she turned to check in on Root, who was literally licking her lips and looking damned pleased with herself. Shaw had no choice but to roll over and kiss the smirk off her face, enjoying the taste of herself on Root's mouth.

“Doing okay?” she asked when the kiss broke off. She nodded up towards Root's cuffed wrists.

“I'm fine, sweetie, but I'd be doing a lot better if you…”

Shaw cut her off with another rough kiss. It was probably about time to start being a little nice again before Root combusted.

She trailed her hand down over Root's body and between her legs and yeah, her underwear were just completely drenched. She rubbed in slow circles over the sticky fabric with her knuckles and Root pressed into her as much as she was able to, trying her hardest to get more friction.

Shaw nudged at Root with her nose until she got the idea and turned her head to the side, giving her better access to lick and nip at the column of her throat. She took her time with her hand, never applying quite enough pressure for Root to get anywhere, until the small needy noises she was making made her take pity on her and finally slide her fingers under the waistband of her underwear. Root's moan of relief at the press of her fingers was so loud that Shaw couldn't hold back a chuckle.

“Someone got a bit worked up,” she murmured into Root's skin. She started making firm circles around her clit, and god Root felt amazingly soft and wet and she needed to sink her fingers into her right now, but first....

When she pulled her hand back this time Root made the most pathetic little whimper Shaw had ever heard and she couldn't even tease her about it.

“Just a second,” she promised, sitting up enough that she could pull Root's underwear down, Root lifting her hips and helpfully kicking them away.

Shaw allowed herself a second to take her in like that: her eyes unfocused and dazed, her lips parted, her entire face and chest flushed red, strands of hair sticking to her cheeks and neck. The tank top was the only thing she was still wearing, rolled up above her breasts which were covered in light red hickies and bite marks that would darken overnight and take days to vanish completely. Shaw could probably trace all the scars on her from memory now, especially the long crooked one that ran across her ribcage that Root had avoided talking about pointedly enough that Shaw had gotten the message and never asked again. She reached out now and traced it lightly with one finger, wondering again what the story behind it was. Root shivered under her touch.

“Sameen...” She wasn't begging like before; she'd said her name gently, reverently and Shaw pulled her hand back, suddenly off balance.

She hurried to pick up where she'd left off, settling back down against her side, and rubbing firm, fast circles while Root's hips rose off the bed to push into her hand. Root was so far along already that all it took was a bit of pressure in the right place and she shattered under Shaw's touch. Her whole body arched up, her head fell back, and her breathing stopped for a few seconds until the tension left her and she collapsed back onto the bed.

Shaw only gave her half a minute to recover before she moved her hand lower and slipped one finger into her. Root bucked up into her and Shaw sat up so she could hold her hips down with her other hand. She added a second finger, taking her time even though Root was so damn wet and open that she probably could have gone right for three fingers. A glance back up at Root's face showed her eyes bright and eager and Shaw took that as encouragement to start a punishingly fast rhythm with her fingers, keeping Root's hips pinned down as she writhed on the bed. Root’s muscles were fluttering around her fingers and Shaw could tell she wasn't going to last long this time either so she added a third finger and grinded her palm against Root's clit and watched with satisfaction as her whole body tried to curl up on itself as her second orgasm hit. Shaw continued with slow thrusts to work her through it and then pulled out, resting her hand on Root's thigh.

“That working better for you?” she asked when Root had regained enough focus to understand words.

“Definitely, though, Shaw, I think it's worth noting that I can get you off with my hands tied behind my back...well, over my head at least. So maybe you have some room for improvement.”

Shaw just shook her head at her. Root was completely blissed out and probably didn't even have the energy left to sit up and she was still being a brat and doling out bad lines.

“If you've got enough energy left to talk shit then you've got enough energy left to come again.”

Root’s eyelids had been starting to droop but she perked up at the offer and nodded. “You're positively spoiling me tonight, aren't you? Is this all because I waited for you to back me up earlier before shooting those annoying little security guards?”

Shaw had definitely not been thinking about that at all, but hey, maybe she could turn this into some sort of behavioral conditioning thing where Root would call her for backup before doing dangerous shit so Shaw would fuck her brains out later.

“Yep, you got me. That's exactly why.”

Root opened one eye to peer at her. “Hmmm, are you lying to me, Sameen?”

Shaw rolled her eyes and nudged her in the side with her knee. “Can you roll over?”

Shaw ended up having to help a bit and kept an eye on the cuffs to make sure there was enough slack for Root to reposition her arms without having to twist them around uncomfortably. She sat next to Root as she settled herself down and then ran her fingers down her sides from her armpits to the top of her thighs, digging in just enough with her nails to leave light red tracks across her skin. Root gasped happily at the slight sting and lay her head down on the pillow under her, content to let Shaw do as she pleased.

Shaw draped herself half on top of her, pressing their sweaty bodies together and pushing the strap of the tank top aside to bite roughly at Root's shoulder blade. She squirmed up enough that she could nose into Root's hair and get her mouth up next to her good ear, tugging on the lobe with her teeth.

They slept on opposite sides of the bed (except when Root staged an invasion in her sleep), but right now Shaw thought it might feel nice to lie on Root like this sometime. She was soft and smooth under her hands and body and her hair smelled like Shaw's shampoo.

Root rudely shoved her in the side. “You falling asleep on me, sweetie?”

Shaw generally wouldn't admit to having ‘moments’, but in this case she'd acknowledge that she’d been having one so she could blame Root for ruining it.

“Shut up,” she growled in her ear.

“You might have to make me.”

Shaw rolled her eyes again and slid one hand down to grope at Root's ass a bit, squeezing and digging in her nails.

Root obligingly shifted her weight a little when Shaw's hand slid down to her side to let her get her hand under her. It wasn't a terribly comfortable position for Shaw, but Root propped herself up on her elbows and shifted just enough to give her a little more room to maneuver.

She took it slower this time since Root was already pretty fucked out, curling two fingers inside her and biting lightly along Root's back and neck. Her wrist was at an awkward angle but it was worth it to be pressing down on the warm stretch of Root’s body and having her press down on her arm. Root shivered and trembled all over as she drove her hips back to meet Shaw's thrusts and Shaw rocked into her from behind.

When Root came this time it was with a small sigh as she went limp and fell forward onto the pillows, completely still except for her uneven breathing. Shaw gently extracted her arm and moved off her, reaching up to undo the cuffs and examine each of Root's wrists. When she was satisfied that there was no real damage she looked down to see Root's eyes were open again and she was smiling up at her, her whole face glowing.

“What?” Shaw asked, unsure what she'd done to get that sort of reaction.

“I love it when you take care of me.” Root's eyes slid shut again and her whole body softened as she fell asleep.

Shaw watched her breathing for a minute, not completely sure what to do with her words, and then carefully slid her over so she was on her side of the bed. The first time she'd cuffed her, Root had left right after (though that had been before she'd started staying over on the couch regularly), so Shaw thought she might want some space when she woke up from her sex coma. And Shaw definitely needed some space of her own as well right now.

She chucked the cuffs in the vague direction of the dresser and dragged herself into the bathroom to do the bare minimum of bedtime rituals before climbing back onto the bed. Before she settled in, she pulled Root's tank top down so it wasn't bunched up and then tugged the sheets out from under her sleep-heavy body and pulled them over her. As an afterthought she brushed the sweaty hair back off her face as well, _not_ that she was actually taking care of her or whatever that nonsense had been about, but just to make sure Root wasn't breathing in her own hair while she slept.

Finally satisfied that she'd done her due diligence she slid under the covers on her side of the bed and sprawled out to sleep. Between the success of the Samaritan raid and an evening well-spent it had been a damn good day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> About a year ago I promised my fellow writer friend, jenocide that I'd dedicate my next smut fic to her. I then proceeded to write 300k+ words of not smut and several not smutty one-shots and then I didn't dedicate the last chapter to her because I made her beta it for me. Basically I'm the worst friend ever. Anyway, jen, here you go.
> 
> I'll probably write 2-3 more of these, but no real schedule or ETA.


	3. In Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place mid-chapter 15. Samaritan just came online, and Root finally reappeared at Shaw's new apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continuing to go backwards chronologically because why not.
> 
> Content warning: blindfolds, a gross amount of feelings.
> 
> chapter rated E.

They didn't make it to the bedroom.

Root wasn't sure which of them initiated the kiss that turned into a heated make-out session and ended with both of them crashing into the hallway wall, but she was definitely the one to undo Shaw's belt and sink to her knees in front of her, pulling Shaw's pants and underwear down as she went.

Shaw kicked the discarded garments aside and threaded her hands through Root’s hair, pulling her mouth towards where she wanted it. And, well, this hadn't been part of Root’s plan for the evening, but she wasn't going to argue while her mouth was full of the taste of Shaw, and her ears filled with the unrestrained moans falling from her lips.

Shaw usually worked so hard to muffle any noises she made, as if they were a confession of just how good Root could make her feel, but tonight she wasn't holding back at all and Root couldn't help but wonder if she was so worked up because she’d passed on finding other partners during the three weeks since they'd parted ways.

She wondered if the Machine would tell her or if that fell under the very large umbrella of things She thought were none of Root’s business. Also it would have been hard to ask Her while her mouth was busy working Shaw up into a frenzy.

Shaw’s hands tightened in her hair, tugging painfully hard as she came, quicker than she ever had with Root only using her mouth on her. When her grip relaxed enough, Root moved back a little, not enough to shake Shaw's hands off (because she was definitely enjoying the way Shaw was toying lightly with her hair in her post-orgasm bliss), but enough that she could easily look up Shaw's body to watch her face.

She’d missed her during those three weeks, far more than she'd expected to, and, while she wasn't sure if the words she'd coaxed out of Shaw (that maybe she'd missed her too) were true or if they'd been Shaw's attempt to shut her up, right now she'd take them either way and be happy.

Shaw was flushed and breathing hard, her chest heaving in a very distracting way and Root probably would have stayed there all night watching her if Shaw hadn't cracked open her eyes, taken one look at her and swatted her playfully on the side of the head.

“You've been back less than an hour and you're already staring like a creep.” Shaw’s voice was still somewhat uneven, Root noted with pleasure.

“Can't a girl take a second to appreciate her handiwork?” Root asked, digging her fingers into the backs of Shaw's thighs. “Looked like you were having a religious experience up there, sweetie.”

Shaw’s fingers yanked at her hair, encouraging her to get up. She unfolded herself from the floor and used Shaw's body to help her climb back to her feet and damn, how had she not noticed until now how much her knees hurt from kneeling on the hardwood floor?

But she quickly forgot her sore knees because Shaw was kissing her and pushing her tongue into her mouth, and maybe _she_ was the one who'd had the religious experience, kneeling at Shaw's feet and worshipping her body with her mouth. Though saying something that dramatic out loud would probably get her locked out in the hallway in about five seconds flat.

She slid her hands up from Shaw's thighs to grab at her ass, squeezing hard enough to leave bruises and leaned in to press herself against her. She wanted Shaw to shove her down on the bed and cover every inch of her with herself. She wanted to drown in her.

Shaw snatched one of her hands and brought it around between her own legs, pressing Root’s fingers against herself until Root got the message and took over, sliding into Shaw with two fingers.

“Guess you really did miss me,” she teased as Shaw’s head fell back against the wall.

Shaw hadn't let go of her wrist and, at Roots words, tightened her hold on it meaningfully. Root fought down a smile at her impatience and set a steady pace with her fingers, secretly thrilled when Shaw didn't let go of her death grip on her wrist.

Since the small whining noises Shaw was making were too good to muffle, Root turned her attention to Shaw's throat, sinking her teeth in right where her neck met her shoulder and grinning around the bite when she felt Shaw's hips jerk against her hand.

She was a little disappointed when Shaw grabbed her other hand as well (because she'd missed Shaw's ass quite a bit and had rather been enjoying getting reacquainted with it) but her disappointment faded when Shaw guided her hand inside her shirt (when in the world had she undone the buttons?), pressing down on the back of Root’s hand as she enthusiastically palmed her breast over her bra. Shaw was basically using Root’s hands to get herself off and she'd never even thought of this scenario before (which in itself was a bit shocking) but it was definitely going down as a major turn-on and if Shaw didn't repay the favor after this she was going to combust right there in the hall.

At Shaw's urging, she picked up the pace with her fingers and she hoped the Machine had gotten Shaw an apartment with thick walls because she was making an impressive amount of noise now and she had to resist the urge to wrestle her other hand free and stick it down her own pants because Shaw's hot breath on her neck, her hand tight around her wrist, and her muscles clamping down on her fingers were stretching her already frayed self-control to the limits.

Shaw almost cut off all the circulation to Root’s hand when she came this time and then released her all at once, slumping back against the wall. Root quickly moved in to prop Shaw up a bit with her body, taking advantage of her momentarily hazy state to pet her hair a bit, pushing loose strands back off her cheeks.

“Thought that might be right up your kinky alley,” Shaw murmured as she recovered.

It had been and Root very much needed Shaw to do something about that now, but she made herself relax, not let Shaw see how desperate she was since she knew from experience that she could drag things out all night. They both could, but she didn't want that tonight, not after three weeks.

“Why, Shaw, does that mean you spent the last few weeks thinking up ways to get me hot?”

Shaw snorted indelicately. “Wasn't much else to do. New job is a cake walk.”

Root felt a flood of warmth run through her. Shaw had thought about her while she was away. Even if it had only been about sex, it had been about sex with her specifically. She'd take that.

Shaw pushed off the wall and headed down the hall away from her, shedding her shirt and bra as she went. She stopped at the door to her bedroom and looked back with a raised eyebrow. Root hurried after her.

“See you’ve made yourself at home,” Shaw said, eyeing Root's discarded shoes on the floor by the bed. “How long were you waiting for me here?”

“About an hour.” She sat down on the edge of the bed, getting an eyeful of Shaw naked, half bent over a drawer she was fishing around in.

“What have you been up to all this time, anyway?”

Apparently it was talking time and not getting-Root-off time. She pouted a bit but Shaw wasn't looking so it was wasted. Well, nothing she couldn't fix on her own. She reached down to undo her own belt. “Oh, you know, running errands for Her. Breaking into government buildings. Getting a feel for how the ISA is operating now under Samaritan. Some petty theft. Arson. Jaywalking. Armed robbery. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Samaritan. That safe? Thought we were supposed to be keeping our heads down.” Shaw turned back to her, something held in her closed fist.

“I was careful,” Root said, craning her neck to try and get a look at what Shaw was holding. “No unnecessary risks.” A slight lie, but the Machine had already scolded her.

She'd gotten her hand down her pants and was rubbing herself over her underwear now, but Shaw's eyes focused in on the movement and she glared until Root regretfully withdrew her hand. If Shaw wasn’t going to let her get herself off than she needed to do _something_ already.

“So falling down a flight of stairs and getting bruises all over your back was necessary?”

“I told you, I needed to draw attention.” Maybe there'd been other ways to do it, but it'd gotten the job done so what was the big deal? “What're you hiding there?” she asked to change the topic. “Did you get me a present?”

“No. Already had this.” Shaw finally opened her hand and let a sliver of black cloth unfold from it. “You okay with blindfolds or no?”

Root unhooked her bra and tossed it on the floor to momentarily distract Shaw and let her consider the question. She'd never let someone blindfold her before, never trusted anyone enough to try, but the thought of letting Shaw do it wasn't at all unappealing.

“Doesn't hurt to give it a try,” she said at last. She left her unbuttoned and unzipped pants on since she knew how much Shaw enjoyed stripping her clothes off of her.

"Lie back then.”

She scooched back onto the bed (a new bed for Shaw's new apartment) and sprawled out, idly toying with one breast. She saw Shaw pause for a second, eyes drawn to the movement, and smirked, squeezing just a bit and shifting her hips on the mattress.

Shaw wet her lips and then swallowed hard before pulling herself together and climbing on the bed next to her.

“Lift your head up.” The commanding tone was still there, but it was a little softer than before, like Shaw had somehow picked up on her slight hesitation.

The cloth didn't block out all the light like she'd expected, slivers of it getting in from the bottom, but even so she became more aware of her other senses: the sound of her breathing and the small ambient noises of the apartment (and the never-quite-familiar gaping silence on her right side that suddenly felt even more encompassing), the line of warmth that was Shaw sitting so close she was almost touching, and the unfamiliar smell of Shaw's new apartment, just a bit musty.

A cold stream of air hit one of her nipples and she flinched. Shaw chuckled next to her.

“Okay?”

Root let out a long breath and then nodded, relaxing into the mattress. Shaw would make this fun; she just had to trust her. It was still a new thing for her, trusting someone else, giving up even a little bit of control. When they'd first started sleeping together Shaw had been more than content to let her take the lead most times, but somewhere along the way things had shifted a bit, and while she still definitely enjoyed taking the lead, she'd also found out how exciting it could be to surrender herself to Shaw's whims.

The blindfold was...a bit different than anything she’d tried other than the one time she'd let Shaw handcuff her, but they had a safe word plus her hands were completely free so she could remove it herself at any time.

She almost jumped again when Shaw's mouth closed around her nipple, biting lightly and then running her tongue over it and god did her mouth feel amazing. She clumsily felt around until her hand smacked into the top of Shaw's head and she shoved at her, trying to encourage her to put her mouth somewhere else. Her hands were batted away though. Shaw's mouth left her breast and another stream of cold air hit her now-wet nipple and made her shiver.

“Did you roll down the staircase?” Shaw asked and Root tried to place her exact position from where her voice was coming from. “You got bruises all over your ribs.”

“I had to make it look good.” Why was Shaw still harping on this? She managed to find Shaw's head without smacking her this time and threaded a hand into her hair. “I'll tell you all about it later.” She was hoping Shaw dropped it.

Shaw pressed a finger lightly into one of the bruises, drawing a small gasp from her. Her whole damn side had ached at the time but now the pain was a dull but pleasant flare through her. She tightened her hand in Shaw's hair and tugged at it, trying to silently encourage her.

Shaw took her time though, batting her hand away again and then leaning in to tease her with soft bites and hot presses of her lips all over her chest, pulling back after each and moving her mouth to a new spot so Root could never be quite sure where she'd feel her next. Shaw chuckled against her skin whenever she let even the slightest surprised noise escape her lips.

It was definitely working for her, the almost gentle touches punctuated with harsher bites, but it wasn't quite what she wanted right now.

“Sameen.”

“Hmm?”

“Fuck me first, then you can go back to torturing me.” Nothing like direct communication.

Shaw snorted. “Starting to think you haven't gotten off since the last time in the motel.” But she was already tugging Root's pants off and tossing them aside. “These look a bit too nice for your cover.” One of Shaw's fingers traced the top edge of her underwear so lightly it almost tickled. Root lifted her hips to help Shaw slide them off.

“Even a crack dealer wants to look fancy for her lady friend at the end of the day.”

“Lady friend? Really?” Shaw sounded disdainful and Root could almost hear her rolling her eyes.

She didn't get a chance to think of a good response because Shaw’s lips were on hers, her body pressing against hers. And finally, finally, she got to wrap her arms around Shaw and just fully indulge in the warm weight of her body. And Shaw didn't pull away, didn't make her put her hands back on the mattress, or shift uncomfortably in her embrace. It felt like some hollow inside herself that she hadn't even been aware of was suddenly full again, an unknown ache relieved.

She didn't usually miss people (though she'd missed the physical sensations from sex with skilled partners before) and she'd never missed the simple feeling of another person’s skin, a specific person. Was it a physical attachment or an emotional one? What was she supposed to do if it was the latter?

Shaw shifted her weight and her hand snaked down between them to finally give Root what she'd been waiting for since Shaw had first kissed her in the living room.

She bit down on Shaw's lip hard enough to draw blood when Shaw entered her with two fingers.

“Sameen…” It came out a little softer, a little more intimate than she'd meant it to but Shaw only responded by kissing her again and speeding up the movements of her fingers inside her.

She wanted to pull the stupid blindfold off and drink in the sight of Shaw as she fell apart under her, but she didn't want to break the strange spell of the unprecedented closeness Shaw was allowing her. So she just kept kissing her, raking her nails down her back, wrapping a leg around her to press even closer.

She reached up with one hand (slowly, carefully) to cup the side of Shaw's face, run her thumb across her cheek. Behind the safety of the blindfold something so intimate felt easier. Shaw turned her face into her hand and lightly bit her thumb once before bending back down to kiss her again.

She'd been pretty close to coming for a while, but the orgasm took her by surprise, freezing the breath in her throat for a long second before pulling a deep moan from her.

“Move,” Shaw growled shoving at the leg still wrapped loosely around her.

For a long, awful second Shaw's warmth vanished and Root thought she must have freaked her out after all and driven her away but then Shaw’s mouth was on her, her hands pushing her legs apart and nails digging into her thighs. And god, she'd missed this part. Missed it enough that she was coming undone in a matter of minutes, her fingers tangled desperately in the unfamiliar sheets of Shaw's new bed.

After, when Shaw crawled back up to kiss her again, she felt the blindfold being tugged away and reached to keep it in place. But it was gone and she was blinking in the dim light of Shaw's bedroom.

She sat up, eyes down on the sheets that both were and weren't Shaw's. This entire apartment, this entire life had been things the Machine had given Shaw to keep her safe. A cover. One which Root had no part in. She didn't know why she suddenly felt out of place here but the feeling was overwhelming, and she moved to climb off the bed.

“Where're you rushing off to? Machine need you for something?”

Shaw was leaning back on her elbows, face flushed, eyes dark, and bottom lip torn from Root's teeth. She looked oddly peaceful. Root hesitated.

“Figured I'd get out of your hair. You and John have a busy day with that new number tomorrow.”

Shaw tilted her head to one side. “Still early. And this place came with a couch even if it isn't as nice as my old one. Probably better than whatever dive your current identity calls home.”

Root smiled without meaning to. “I'll have you know She got me the classiest dumpster on the upper east side.” Shaw wanted her to stay.

“Anyway, thought you said I got to torture you after I got you off?” Shaw raised an eyebrow in question.

“Hmm, I did say that, didn't I?” She moved back towards Shaw and that feeling she'd had when she'd wrapped her arms around Shaw came back. She'd never had something to come back to before and now that she did she wondered how she'd ever leave again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tentatively planning at least one more, though no ETA. If there was a specific sex scene anyone wanted expanded on from stc drop a note in the comments and I'll see if I can think something up for it though no promises.


	4. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in chapter 35 when Root had the Machine schedule a small stop on their road trip so Shaw could bang her in the car during a blizzard because why not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reader mrdth9 requested the banging in the car during the blizzard scene and since it was fairly short it didn't take long to write. I flipped the POV from STC to Shaw's so you get a little of the same stuff from the chapter through her eyes.
> 
> The title is...listen, I think I'm hilarious.
> 
> No real content warnings, definitely rated E.

“We need to make a quick stop here.”

Shaw squinted through the swirling snow at the exit sign on the side of the highway. Stopping while they were trying to outrun a storm didn't seem like a great idea, but maybe Root wanted coffee or something.

Of course Root would probably freeze to death the second she got out of the car thanks to the ridiculous skirt she’d thought it appropriate to wear in the dead of winter, but that wasn't Shaw's fault. She took the exit and drove into the parking lot of a highway rest stop.

“Park over there.” Root pointed towards the far end of the parking lot. It was snowing enough that Shaw couldn't even see the treeline that bordered the lot until she pulled closer. Here in the furthest corner, the rest stop building was completely obscured by the storm.

“What's the plan here?” She took her seatbelt off, ready to head off any attempts Root made to go wander around the snowy wasteland while dressed for a summer picnic. “Thought we were trying to beat the storm?”

“Oh, don't worry. I had Her account for a brief stop.” Root undid her seatbelt and her face lit up with a grin that Shaw recognized. She was up to something for sure and there was a 99.9% chance it involved sex.

“Root….” Was this really the time?

Root leaned over and yanked the bar under Shaw's chair, sliding it all the way back before looking up at Shaw as if gauging her reaction to all this. And yeah, this was headed right where Shaw had thought it was, but it was hard to be upset about that especially with the way Root was biting her lower lip as she gazed up at her through her eyelashes. Totally an affected look but still effective.

Root's look turned into a gleeful grin as she climbed over the center divider and plopped herself down in Shaw's lap, rearranging her skirt. Shaw reached out automatically to steady her and then let her hands wander a bit, pushing aside the bunched up fabric of the skirt she was now positive Root had worn just for this. She let her fingers trail along Root's thighs, stroke her skin, smooth and slightly chilled to the touch.

“Seriously?” she asked. Had the Machine planned this little pit stop for them? Did Root have her factor in time for sex on missions? Was this something they discussed regularly?

“I'm a very serious person, Sameen.”

Root laced her fingers behind Shaw's neck and leaned forward to bring their lips together and okay she wasn't going to complain about this because Root’s lips were soft against hers and she still smelled like Shaw's shampoo from her shower that morning. It was strangely pleasing that Root smelled kinda like her now but she didn't let herself think about that too much.

She grabbed her hips to pull her in closer because she was not going to be amused if Root hit the car horn and someone came over to investigate. They were damn lucky the seats went back so far in this model...except that wasn't luck was it?

Stupid pervy AI.

“No, I meant you seriously had the Machine schedule in a sex break on a time-sensitive drive through a blizzard?” How did the Machine calculate how long it would take for Root to get off? Actually, maybe she didn't want to know.

“She likes a challenge.”

Shaw snorted and tugged lightly on Root's skirt. “And this is why you've been freezing your ass off all day? I'm pretty sure we could have made this work regardless. It's not like I've ever had any trouble getting into your pants before.”

“Mmm, maybe I just liked the idea of you with your hands up my skirt, secure in our little car, in the middle of a snow storm.”

That sounded unnecessarily sappy, but oh well.  
“Well, after you went to so much effort, it'd be rude of me not to play along.”

She let her hands go back to Root's legs, pushing aside her skirt and sliding along her bare thighs. Root tried to press forward into her in the limited space but Shaw kept her fingers just out of range of where she wanted them.

“Of course I've been known to be pretty rude,” she continued, holding back a smirk at the small frustrated noise Root made. She dragged her nails down her thighs, hard, and Root whimpered and pressed her face into the crook of her neck. Her hair was soft against Shaw and she kind of wanted to free up one hand to run her fingers through it a bit.

“Sweetie, as much as I hate to rush you, we're on a tight schedule here.”

Shaw spared a glance out the window at the swirling snow storm that wrapped around their car like a curtain. They probably _were_ on a pretty tight schedule, but winding Root up was always fun.

“Oh, are we? Well, in that case….”

She finally let one of her hands explore further up and damn Root must have been fantasizing about this the entire ride because her underwear were soaked through. She thought about teasing her a bit more, seeing how strung out she could get her, but she really didn't want to dig them out of a snow drift later so she slid her fingers into her underwear. Root was so damn wet and getting more so as Shaw’s fingers played with her, and she was unable to stop herself from indulging in the feel of her for just a few seconds.

She wished like hell she had some way she could get her mouth on her but since there was no fast way of doing that in the limited space she settled for rubbing firm circles around Root's clit and enjoying the way Root's hips jerked and how she pressed into the motion.

Root bit down on the side of Shaw's neck with a small, desperate moan and Shaw grabbed her hair with her free hand and tugged at it sharply. She did _not_ fancy showing up in front of Root's little team of nerdy hackers with a giant bite mark on her neck. Root relented and pulled back so Shaw could kiss her, swallow the breathy whimpers that escaped her when Shaw entered her with a single finger.

Root felt so hot and tight around her finger that Shaw’s breath hitched and she tightened her grip on her hair. They didn't have a lot of room to maneuver but Root was rocking her hips into Shaw's hand as much as she could and Shaw tried to match her frantic pace, adding a second finger and releasing her hair in favor of sliding her hand down the back of her underwear and digging her nails into her ass, hard.

She caught glimpses of the snow-covered world outside through the strands of Root's hair that fell around her face as she kissed her again. Maybe there was something to be said for the whole banging during a blizzard thing because she was suddenly imagining shoving Root up against the car and fucking her with a strap-on while the snow swirled around them and yeah that was definitely going down as a major turn on (even if it was a completely impractical one) and Root had better be willing to repay the favor when they got to the hotel because fuck.

She dug her nails in a little more, grinding her palm on Root's clit and then Root was coming with a drawn out moan that sent a spike of want through Shaw that she knew she wouldn't have time to deal with until later. Root slumped forward onto her, completely limp and spent.

Shaw had to manhandle her back into the passenger's seat, almost hitting the damn horn in the process. She looked at the goofy smile on Root's face and shook her head. She was such a disaster, willing to freeze to death for a quickie in the parking lot of a rest stop in the middle of nowhere. She'd better have packed some actual clothes.

She glanced back towards the rear of the car and then opened her door and slid out into the storm. The wind was blowing pretty hard and the snow almost looked like it was falling sideways. Standing in a blizzard wasn't quite the same as a cold shower, but it'd have to do for the moment.

She made her way to the back and rummaged around in Root's bag (which, once again, appeared to be mostly full of sex toys, hard drives, and cables) until she found a pair of jeans. She also discovered a new dumb shirt she hadn't seen before (it simply said ‘I am why we can't have nice things.’ and okay that was completely true) and took extreme satisfaction in using it to wipe her fingers off. Root would either sulk about that or be ridiculously turned on, a win for Shaw either way.

As an afterthought she pulled a hoodie out of her own bag since the little jacket Root was wearing hadn't looked very warm.

She dumped the clothes in Root's lap when she got back in the driver's seat. “Whenever you can move again put your goddamn pants on. It's the middle of winter for fuck’s sake.”

Root just beamed at her with the sappiest grin Shaw had ever seen. Apparently she'd fucked her silly, not that it had taken much effort. She'd never seen her so slaphappy after a quick fuck. Root must have _really_ liked snowstorms for some reason.

She thought about that morning, how Root had shut down when she thought Shaw hadn't wanted to come with her on this trip, and an image swam up in her mind of Root stopping here anyway, sitting in the parking lot by herself. She scowled at the steering wheel until the pulse of anger the idea caused her had passed. She was here now and that was what mattered.

“Guess you can cross that off your bucket list now,” she said to distract herself from her thoughts. Outside the storm looked like it was getting worse. “And guess I'm driving the whole way.” Root was totally wrecked.

“I'll be able to drive in a few minutes,” Root protested, feebly.

“You're going to take a nap,” Shaw said firmly, “because when we get to the hotel you owe me one for granting your weird blizzard sex fantasy.” She started the engine. “At least one.”

“Anything you want, sweetie.”

“Just put your pants on already.”

She still couldn't get her mind around the fact the Machine had been in on this whole thing. She imagined Reese's face if she told him the Machine was a total perv now. How would that fit in with all his concerns about AI world domination?

Root didn't say anything else until they were back out on the road. She'd managed to struggle into her jeans and was wrapped snugly in Shaw's hoodie.

“Thank you, Sameen.”

“For fucking you in a parking lot?”

“Mmm, that, too.”

That, too?

“So for what then?”

Root only smiled at her and lay back in her seat, content. Goddamn brat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got two more requests to cover: the angsty night before the final fight and something from fairly early on before they really caught feelings. No ETA. lmk if there's others anyone wants.


	5. Lost and Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place during chapter 39, the night before they go after Samaritan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by reader Wololoo who said they love pain, so here's a butt-load of angst.
> 
> This is more M rated than E really, not a lot of smut. A bit heavy on the angst side of things but then Root was kind of a mess at this point. I'm not completely happy with it.
> 
> No content warnings necessary.

Root twirled a lock of Shaw's sweat-damp hair between her fingers, feeling quite pleased with herself at the dazed look on Shaw's face.

“Was that hot and frantic enough for you?” She'd been touched by Shaw requesting night-before-taking-on-Samaritan sex and more than happy to oblige.

Now with Shaw lying under her on the couch in her apartment she felt better than she had in days, the worries locked away for a moment. She could wait until Shaw was asleep before letting her mind drift back to dwelling on the possible outcomes of tomorrow.

Shaw fumbled around, pulling at the waistband of Root's pants impatiently.

“Oh, did you want something?” She batted her eyelashes at Shaw in a way she knew both aggravated the hell out of her and turned her on. Shaw narrowed her eyes.

And then the entire world was spinning and flipping and somehow she was on her back with Shaw pinning her down and looking amused.

“That's not playing fair!” She stuck out her lower lip in a pout, although between their earlier activities and the feel of Shaw on top of her she was more than ready for some reciprocation.

Shaw didn't look even slightly remorseful. “Too bad. Should've spent more of our training sessions concentrating on hand-to-hand and not hand-down-my-pants.”

She couldn't be blamed for getting all hot and bothered by sweaty Shaw in a tank top looking so serious and determined while she demonstrated the best way to break someone's neck.

“Didn't hear you complaining then,” she said because there'd definitely been no complaints when she'd ‘accidentally’ yanked Shaw's workout pants off and then thoroughly ‘apologized’ to her for it.

Shaw braced herself above her, pinning her wrists next to her head. “That's because we both know you're the loud one.”

“Why don't we go ask your neighbors to weigh in on that?”

Shaw tilted her head to one side. “Maybe later.”

She leaned down to kiss her, softly, far too softly for Root's current mood. She didn't want Shaw being gentle with her tonight, she wanted her to drive all other thoughts from her mind, make her lose herself under her touch.

She pushed into the kiss, demanding more, wrapping a leg up around Shaw to let her know to move things along.

But Shaw pulled back and shoved her leg off, her face set in a look Root couldn't place.

“Why don't we move this into the bedroom?”

There was something almost sacrosanct about Shaw's room, her bed. Sure they had plenty of rough, messy sex there, but that was also where she slept with her head on Shaw's chest, where Shaw sometimes slept curled up around her after she'd woken them both up with a nightmare.

The couch was safer right now.

“Sounds like a waste of time,” she said and leaned up to kiss her again, pulling against the hands restraining her wrists.

Shaw’s mouth was soft against hers, and she tried to focus on just the sensation of that, the thrill she still always felt when she was kissing her.

“Root.” Shaw pulled back again, moved out of reach. “Hey, calm down for a second.”

Root lay back, one eyebrow cocked in question. Shaw had certainly never asked her to calm down before.

“Just...slow down, okay?”

Far too serious for right now.

“What happened to hot and frantic?” Root asked, wriggling under her with a grin.

“Got plenty of time for more of that later.”

Except they didn't anymore, did they? They'd run out of time and tomorrow the illusion of having this for forever might be smashed in one way or another. She could lose Shaw, or the Machine, or both. And they could lose her.

“Do we?” The question escaped her before she could think it through and she looked away, out across the darkened living room. She didn't want to talk about this now, didn't want Shaw to know how much she cared, how weak it had made her. Shaw had told her to stop worrying about what might happen tomorrow, but she couldn't. Which meant the best she could do was hide how worried she was, but now she didn't seem able to do even that.

Shaw sighed softly above her and Root looked back at her despite herself. Shaw's expression was her normal one, flat, almost unreadable, but there was something serious about her eyes, like she knew exactly what was going through Root's mind.

“I don't know, and neither do you and that sucks, but….” Shaw trailed off.

Root studied her for a long moment, biting her bottom lip. If this was what Shaw wanted tonight then she would give it to her. Maybe she could keep her fears from spilling over, giving her away. She nodded and made herself relax.

Shaw eased up her grip a little and moved back in, but instead of meeting her lips she kissed down the side of her neck, slowly, gently, like she was trying to will her into calmness. It startled her when Shaw dug her teeth in at the base of her throat, just the tiniest bit, and a small gasp escaped her.

Shaw’s mouth drifted down further, as she continued her leisurely path across one collarbone and then the other. She paused for a second to breathe out a warm puff of air into the hollow of Root's throat and suddenly it was too much. She wanted to struggle against her, get free, get away. Anything was better than having Shaw look back at her face and seeing how raw her expression must surely be. Her eyes were burning and she bit her own lip, hard, to steady herself. She almost lost the battle when Shaw's mouth returned to hers, a warm press of lips before she pulled back to look at her and god she felt more exposed than she ever had, bracing herself for Shaw's reaction to the mess she'd turned her into.

But there was no judgment in Shaw's face, no rejection or scorn for her weakness. She looked...relieved?

“What I said yesterday,” Shaw started, slow but deliberate, as if thinking through every word before speaking it, “about not sitting around worrying about outcomes that hadn't happened...I didn't mean you were supposed to pretend you didn't care, that you weren't scared. I just meant not to get lost in it, okay?”

She focused on Shaw's lips because her eyes were too intense, too knowing.

Sensing Shaw was waiting for an answer, she nodded again, not trusting her voice.

“I don't really get scared, but that's me. Don't want you to try and be someone you're not. You've never asked me to be.”

And there it was, the acceptance and understanding that tied them both together so tightly. Neither of them had ever put it into words before and hearing it aloud, unprompted was like a gift, maybe the first real gift she'd ever gotten.

She met Shaw's eyes again and saw the worry in them, and it made her ache to think she was the cause, torn between gratitude and guilt. She looked back out at the silent living room which had become so familiar to her that she dared to think of it as a home now.

“Shaw, can we just…”

But then Shaw leaned down to kiss her again, more forcefully this time and that made things easier, familiar. Safe. They were both breathing hard when they finally came up for air.

“Bedroom?” Shaw suggested again, and this time Root nodded and let Shaw pull her up and lead her into the dark comfort of their room.

Shaw had stripped her out of her clothes plenty of times (usually in the midst of a heated make-out session), but she'd never undressed her before, not like this. Root's shirt was long gone, somewhere out on the living floor with all of Shaw's clothes, so Shaw started with her bra, reaching behind her to unhook it and then pushing the straps down from her shoulders, fingers trailing over skin in a caress. She repeated the motion with her pants, unbuttoning them and kneeling to pull them down so she could run her hands along her legs as she went. The underwear followed as almost an afterthought, as if having her naked hadn't been the intention, only the result.

Shaw stayed on her knees in front of her, wrapped her hands around her hips, pressed a line of hot open-mouthed kisses along one hip bone. Root tangled one hand in Shaw's hair, hanging free and down around her for once. When it came to sex between them, she’d never been unsure of herself, never felt off balance, but now….

Shaw stood up, eyes piercing in the mostly darkened room.

“Hey, you good?”

“Thought I showed you _exactly_ how good I am a few minutes ago.” Her voice sounded strange, foreign, like someone else was speaking for her.

“Root…”

Shaw captured one of her hands, held it up between them. It was shaking. Now that she noticed that she could feel the fine trembling running through her entire body. She pulled away, squeezed both hands into fists, trying to force herself still.

Shaw didn't reach for her again. She stood still watching her with a small frown like she didn't know quite what to do.

“It's just a little cold in here.” It didn't count as a lie if she didn't expect Shaw to believe it. “Wanna come warm me up?”

“If that's what you want?” The slightest of inflections made it a question.

Shaw's hesitation freed Root from her own. She sat down on the edge of the bed and beckoned for Shaw.

“Come here.”

Shaw followed her, putting her knees on the bed on either side of her and sinking down into her lap. Her skin was warm on Root's, and her breath was soft on her face. She looked like she was about to say something so Root kissed her instead. She ran her hands down Shaw's side and around to squeeze her ass, let her know she was ready to change the mood.

“Tell me what you want,” Shaw breathed against her lips.

She'd never had a problem telling her before but she wasn't sure this time. The need for something rough and fast that she'd had earlier had faded. She brushed her cheek along Shaw's so her lips were next to her ear.

“I want to feel you all over me.”

Shaw’s breath hitched. “Okay.”

She ended up propped up on some pillows against the headboard, Shaw still straddling her. It was all bruising kisses and wandering hands now, making out with slow determination. Shaw moved down to pay some attention to her breasts, palming one roughly while biting and sucking the other. Her free hand explored every inch of Root it could reach, brushing her neck, her shoulder, ghosting down her side, digging nails in slightly at her hip, stroking her thigh, the gentleness offsetting the small sparks of pain that radiated out wherever Shaw's teeth or nails pressed down on her skin.

She slid her hands into Shaw's loose hair, playing gently with the thick strands, looking down at her in sheer wonder. After all this time she was still so awed that Shaw was here with her like this, had chosen to be here.

Shaw took her time, lavishing attention on every inch of her breasts, her stomach, and then down to her thighs, her nails dragging red lines across her skin. All of it felt so good, got her back to where she'd been before things turned serious.

When Shaw finally pushed her legs apart and settled between them, Root was more grounded, back in control of herself. She stopped breathing for half a second at the feel of Shaw's mouth on her, the touch of her tongue. Shaw’s hands didn't grip her hard or hold her in place like they usually did, but kept moving over her body, so lightly it made her shiver.

She couldn't tell how long it took for Shaw to drive her to the edge, maybe only a minute, maybe ten or more. She felt different, definitely enjoying the physical sensations as Shaw's mouth and tongue pulled small whimpers from her and made her writhe, but also free from the demands of her body, as if...as if she was floating in warm water carried by a gentle current.

Shaw pressed in even closer and then the whole world went away for a moment and she forgot how to breathe. She spun in a free-fall of sensation until reality came back and the room crawled into focus again. Shaw was no longer between her legs but sitting up next to where she rested on the pillows, pushing locks of Root's hair out of her face the way Root did for her so often.

She knew that these were things Shaw didn't do for the same reasons she did (touching Shaw was almost a compulsion for her), were probably things Shaw did because she'd guessed or concluded that Root liked them, but that only made them mean more to her. Signs that Shaw cared enough to learn what she liked and chose to act on them even if they weren't her thing.

“Okay?” Shaw asked, the slight worry still there in her eyes.

“Better than okay,” Root managed to get out. She felt light and floaty in a way she'd never experienced after sex.

“Go again?” Shaw’s fingers left her hair to rest on her own legs.

“No, I…. No.” Whatever it was she was feeling she didn't want it to go away just yet.

Shaw watched her, quietly, eyes darting across her face and body like she was writing it to memory.

“Should probably sleep then.” Shaw rolled off the bed, offered her a hand up.

Neither of them said anything while they got ready for bed and the silence continued as they climbed back under the covers. Shaw usually waited for Root to situate herself first, but tonight she moved directly into her space, curled up around her back, pulled her into the curve of her body, encircled her in her arms, and pressed every inch of herself up against her like she was shielding her with her body.

“Don't get lost in it,” Shaw said softly near her ear, a firm reminder.

She thought about turning it into a joke, something sentimental enough to make Shaw roll her eyes. Something about being lost in her. But she couldn't do that tonight. And she couldn't voice the truth, that with Shaw so close that she could feel her heartbeat she was anything but lost.

She fell asleep in the circle of Shaw's arms. Both of them safe for this moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got about 5-6 other requests to go. Will be picking my way through those slowly.


	6. Considerate Considerations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set very early on in STC, probably in Chapter 2 right before the events of Root Path. So after Shoot had started sleeping together but before they really caught feelings (or right around when Root was starting to go oops wait).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is sort of the opposite of the last chapter in some ways so I'm glad I wrote them one after the other. The general idea was what they were getting out of the not-a-relationship at this point, though you're only gonna get Shaw's take on that here (I think Root's take is a little more obvious and a little more explored in STC this early on).
> 
> Content warning: Rough-ish sex, a lot of scratching and biting. rated E.

“Don't make me regret this.” Shaw turned the key in the lock and pushed her apartment door open.

“Have you forgotten?” Root sailed past her into the loft. “I've been here before.” She spun back around in a little circle and smiled sweetly.

“You mean you broke in and abducted me. Not quite the same.”

She wasn't sure why she'd invited Root back to her place today. Fucking in safe houses had been working just fine for them up until now, but maybe she hadn't felt like taking an unnecessary side trip and then having to come all the way back home after.

Now, watching Root breeze around the room, examining everything, she was unsure this had been a good idea. She thought it was pretty clear between them that this wasn't like...a thing. They fucked and parted ways, end of story. Just because it was her apartment, that wasn't going to change.

Root definitely knew that. Probably. Hopefully.

“Love what you've done with the place.” Root had the refrigerator open and was eyeing her gun stash. “Though I half-expected you to be a world-class chef.”

“I can cook just fine.” She stalked over and shut the refrigerator door a bit forcefully. Root stepped back, still smiling in that irritating way she had. “Thought you’d know stuff like that, what with your stalker boss and all.”

“She's not a stalker, Sam.” Root moved to the battered wooden dresser and ran her hand along the top of it.

“Just employs one.” If Root started going through her drawers then she was going to tase _her_ for a change.

But Root moved away from the dresser and back to where Shaw stood next to the fridge.

“And do you invite all your stalkers back to your place?”

Yeah, inviting her here had definitely been a mistake. She wasn't sure _why_ she kept agreeing to sleep with her. Sure Root was hot as hell, all long limbs, soft hair, and sharp teeth, dangerous and wild. And she _was_ great in bed, but even the hottest of her hookups got tossed curbside after a time or two.

She supposed it was a matter of convenience. Root was mixed up in the same mess she was so there were never any annoying lies to keep straight. And while Root did prattle on a bit she didn't ask the types of questions that Shaw really hated, that inane get-to-know-you crap that set her teeth on edge. Root wasn't that particular brand of nosy and she had an uncanny sense of when to back off, and just how far she could push. It was sort of refreshing.

And she certainly knew how to keep things interesting, plus was the rare combination of hot, smart, and dangerous to hold Shaw's attention. Not that Shaw would ever tell her that. Root was enough of a smug brat already. 

All that aside, probably best to make sure Root knew where things stood.

“I invited you here for one reason. We fuck, you leave. Preferably with minimal talking.” That should clear up any misunderstandings.

Root stepped forward and put one hand on the wall next to Shaw's head. She leaned down into her space, eyes dark and dancing.

“Works for me.”

They'd done this five or so times now, but there was still the slightest hesitation when Root went to kiss her, like she was waiting to make sure they were on the same page. It was considerate of her, Shaw supposed as she closed the distance and bit Root's lip (a small revenge for all the nosy poking around her stuff), but like everything else she did it was annoying. She didn't want a considerate fuck; she wanted something very straight-forward and uncomplicated.

Fortunately, once she was kissing Root, that stopped being an issue. Root shoved her against the wall, hard, and immediately started undoing her belt. She shoved Shaw's pants and underwear down just enough to give herself a little room to maneuver and then her fingers were on her, exploring and teasing with a firm touch.

Shaw hadn't been especially turned on when they'd got here, but that changed quickly, especially when Root slid her other hand up under her shirt to palm her breast.

Root kept making small, pleased noises as her fingers stroked her and she looked so satisfied that Shaw decided that was more than enough of that. She reached around Root to get her hands on her back, under her shirt, and dug her nails in, deep, dragging them from her spine all the way around to her sides and then across the softer skin of her stomach. Root's breath came out in a surprised gasp and her eyes lit up.

“Want me to lose the shirt?” Root asked, voice low and a little rough and damn if that didn't hit Shaw just right.

Root taking her shirt off meant her moving her hands, which was not high on Shaw's list of ideal situations. But….

“Yeah, maybe.”

She got started before Root freed her hands, tugging her shirt up from the bottom, harshly. Root's hair was a mess when they finally got the shirt off and Shaw wasted no time in unhooking her bra as well before Root's hands could get busy again.

Definitely worth the slight delay, she decided, letting out a small sigh when Root returned to her earlier task. She dragged her nails up Root's stomach to the undersides of her breasts, paused to press her thumbs into her ribcage hard enough to bruise and then moved up to pinch her nipples, dig in with her nails again just a little.

Root moaned in appreciation (and why was that such a turn on?) and speed up with her fingers, rubbing firm circles now as Shaw's hips pressed into her hand.

“Just fuck me already,” Shaw said, pleased that her voice was so steady. Root's fingers felt good on her, really good, but she wanted to get off, get Root off, get Root out, and get on with her day.

“You know how to make a girl feel special, Shaw.” Root sounded amused though and complied, sliding a finger into her and immediately setting a fast pace.

Shaw's head fell back and she barely suppressed the sound that had almost escaped her. Root fucked her hard and deep, quickly adding a second finger, and in return she left marks all over her with her nails. Root loved that shit, loved walking away with evidence of their trysts written all over her, and Shaw was more than happy to play along as long as Root didn't draw attention to it in front of the others. None of their damn business who she fucked.

Root's fingers curled inside her just right and Shaw rested her forehead against her shoulder, breath coming in pants now as she got close. Root's free hand cupped the back of her head, weaving into her hair, and Shaw freed up one hand to bat her away. Root didn't seem at all bothered and moved her hand down to her hip instead, pressing her back into the wall.

Root's teeth sank into the base of her neck and Shaw came, clenching down hard on her fingers. Root kept moving inside her, slow, easy strokes to work her through it, until Shaw recovered and pushed her away.

She kicked her pants and underwear the rest of the way off and then stripped off her shirt and bra as well, breathing a sigh of relief. Undressing always felt so damn good, even moreso now when she'd just gotten off.

Root shamelessly took in the view, still looking quite pleased with herself. Shaw rolled her eyes and headed over to the sink to get a glass of water, ignoring Root for the moment.

She felt a little less tense about the whole Root-in-her-apartment situation now, and she wasn't sure that was a good thing. But they were here now and ruining Root so thoroughly that she couldn't walk straight sounded like a fun time.

“Where’s this from?”

Shaw turned to find Root next to her bed, poking the little medal that hung from her light with one finger.

“Take it off someone on a mission?”

Shaw crossed the room and snatched the medal, sticking in the top drawer of her dresser. Not something she wanted to explain to Root.

When she turned back around, Root was perched on the edge of her bed, completely naked (how had she not noticed that a second ago? only Root could irritate her enough for that). Like always, she didn't seem the least bit upset by Shaw's rebuff. It was beyond weird, seeing someone (especially Root) here in her space like this. She didn't bring people home as a rule and now there was this naked pain in her ass sitting on her bed, stretching out ridiculously long, pale legs.

She needed to move this along.

“What’d you want?” she asked as she moved over to stand in front of her. Not the sexiest line, but oh well.

Root cocked her head to one side.“Whatever you're willing to give me.”

That dumb smirk of hers made the line sound even worse.

“Whatever.” She shoved Root's legs apart and sank to her knees between them.

She’d never admit it out loud, but she really, really enjoyed going down on Root. It was gratifying to feel her squirm at the touch of her tongue, and the sounds that came out of her should have seemed ridiculous in their frequency and volume but they stirred up a low simmer of heat inside her instead.

She took her time working her up with just her mouth. She could have gotten her off quickly, she knew, but she liked the idea that she could wreck her so completely. She wanted Root to know that she knew exactly how much of an effect she could have on her body. Take her smugness down a notch or two.

When she entered her carefully with a single finger, Root yanked on her hair, just enough to hurt.

“No need to be polite, Sameen.”

Shaw looked up her body and took in how flushed and sweaty she was, the way her lips were parted and her eyes hooded. It was a good look.

She added a second finger, still taking her time. She could fuck her brains out in a second, didn't hurt to take the time to make sure she was ready for it. It was only considera…. Shit.

She glared up at Root, as if the stray thought had been her fault, and sped up her pace, getting lost in how hot and wet Root was around her fingers. There was something almost intoxicating about the way Root's body responded to her, how sensitive she was to even the smallest adjustment. Like she was focused on Shaw with every inch of herself.

Root let herself fall over backwards onto the bed with a groan that shot through Shaw like electricity. She clambered up, never losing her rhythm with her fingers, and rested her weight on one arm and knee on the bed above Root, using her new leverage to fuck her even harder, draw new and more guttural noises out of her and maybe some of those noises were coming from Shaw as well but she couldn't be blamed with the sight and sounds and feel of Root under her.

Root had been good about keeping her hands to herself so far, but now she wrapped her arms around Shaw and clawed frantically at her back, making a pathetic whining noise and yeah Shaw was either going to have to let her get her off again or handle the situation herself after she left because damn.

Root collapsed back onto the mattress when she came, chest heaving in a distracting way. Shaw carefully withdrew and then sat on the edge of the bed next to her, wondering if she should take care of herself while Root recovered. Root looked pretty spent, but maybe she could get her off with just her mouth from that position. Probably worth a shot.

She gave her some time to recover first, using the opportunity to indulge in some minor, opportunistic staring while Root was too gone to notice. She really _was_ incredibly hot, but also...pretty? And not in a way that usually appealed to Shaw. The collection of scars across her body were a reminder of who she was, what sorts of things she did when she wasn't lying sticky and naked in Shaw's bed.

“What's this one from?” she asked, prodding the nasty curved scar across her ribcage. It looked older than the others, faded some, but still the most noticeable.

“Bar brawl gone wrong,” Root drawled, eyes half shut. “I barely remember anymore.”

It was an obvious lie, or at least mostly a lie, and Root had meant her to know that. Must not have been a fun story.

Well, it was none of her business anyway.

She switched topics. “You leaving town again?”

“She hasn't told me yet, but I think I'll be here another day or two. Why? You have something in mind?” Root propped herself up on her elbows, her hair stuck to her face in damp strands.

“Nothing particular. Figured if there wasn't a new number tomorrow things might be a bit boring.”

Root chuckled. “I must have done well if I'm getting invited back for seconds. Here I thought I'd be banished for good.”

That had been the plan. Shaw wasn't sure what had changed. It wasn't like she'd never had good sex before, and she'd never had any trouble moving on no matter how good it was, but having Root around…. Well, Root was so damn different than anyone she usually picked so maybe she was just a curiosity. Things were less boring with her around. And she'd be done with her soon enough, right?

“I had rather hoped to repay the favor at least once more,” Root continued, unaware of her thoughts.

It wasn't like she really had much else to do this evening, Shaw admitted as she slung a leg over Root's hips. Maybe she should order some food for them, turn it into a whole evening before kicking her out.

“Fine,” she said, tracing some of the red scratch marks she'd left on Root's stomach, “but no more touching my stuff.”

“But, Sameen, I thought you liked it when I touched your stuff.”

Shaw rolled her eyes and moved up Root's body to shut her up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think some 'the days after If-Then-Else' deleted scenes might be up next. So that should be a fun, uplifting, angst-free time, right? We shall see.


	7. Summer Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set after Chapter 26 in the days after the fallout from the stock exchange.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is rated T. No smut, just feels.
> 
> This was overwhelmingly the thing I got the most requests for so I hope it turned out okay.
> 
> I'd definitely recommend reading the end of chapter 24 and at least skimming chapter 25 again for this, but it's probably not necessary.

_"Simple causal reasoning about a feedback system is difficult because the first system influences the second and second system influences the first, leading to a circular argument._  
_This makes reasoning based upon cause and effect tricky, and it is necessary to analyze the system as a whole."_

 

* * *

 

Even though the nightmares didn't come back that night, Root didn't get much sleep. Shaw’s chest rose and fell steadily beneath her head, a gentle reassurance that Shaw was alive and really here with her despite everything that had happened.

But it was hard not to think about how shallow and uneven Shaw's breaths had been last time she’d been wrapped in Root's arms. Her memory of holding Shaw in the back of the car after they'd escaped the stock exchange was mercifully hazy, like a half-forgotten dream.

Mostly she remembered the blood. It would be hard not to since she'd tried to scrub the dried remains of it off herself only a short while ago.

The blood was mostly gone now, cleaned away, but she imagined she could still feel the touch of Shaw's fingers on her face from that moment in the elevator, the smear of warm blood across her cheek. Shaw had been trying to tell her something at the time, but she'd never gotten a chance to. She wondered if she'd ever find out what it had been.

At least now, with Shaw safe in her arms, there was a chance.

It was close to three in the morning when she heard the sound of rain hitting the window. She debated for a few, long minutes before carefully disentangling herself from Shaw and slipping out of bed to crack the window open a tiny bit. It was a soft, summer rain, warm and gentle, and it filled the room with its distinct, fresh smell.

She breathed in deeply a few times before returning to the bed and slipping back under the covers. She was tentative in her movements when she put her head back on Shaw's chest, slid one leg over hers, and rested a hand on her stomach. Shaw was lost in the heavy sleep of morphine and exhaustion, but she still didn't want to risk hurting her.

Shaw sighed quietly but didn't stir and Root had to bite her own lip against the sudden tightness in her throat. She wanted to wrap her arms around her, latch onto her, but that was exactly the sort of thing that could actually hurt her. In more ways than one.

It took a long time for her to finally fall asleep.

 

* * *

 

It smelled like rain in the elevator.

Some part of Shaw that was observing from a distance knew it was a dream, but that wasn't particularly important. There was no movement or sound other than the raindrops falling in the basement of the stock exchange, right outside the wire gate. There was no blood, no pain, no thrill of combat, no gun in her hand, but there was a presence there with her, a suggestion of another person, all around her but at the same time not touching her. Warm like a rainy day in summer.

It was a peaceful dream.

She woke up slowly, the dream fading into the bedroom in the townhouse. The rain was apparently real, falling in the early morning light outside the window. And the presence….

Root was sound asleep, limp and heavy against her. She'd curled up around Shaw as much as she could, almost clinging to her. Even the one time before that she'd woken up with Root lying on her it hadn't been quite like this.

Root's breath came out in warm puffs of air on her skin and her hair was soft on her shoulder. It wasn't a bad thing to have her lying here like this, more like a reminder that somehow they'd gotten through everything the last few days had thrown at them. A bit battered and bruised (inside and out), but very much alive.

She let Root sleep for a bit longer, content to see her safe and resting after all the drama of the day before, but the painkillers had worn off overnight and everything was starting to ache. She shook Root gently with her uninjured arm until she stirred.

“Too early,” Root grumbled, shutting her eyes again.

“Let me get up and you can go back to sleep.”

Root was still for a moment before she opened her eyes again and sat up, gingerly. The covers slid down to her waist and Shaw couldn't help but look. Root was always so soft and sleepy in the morning, her wild energy tucked away. Shaw had gotten used to waking up to this, having her within reach first thing in the morning.

“I can play fetch for you if you need something,” Root offered. “Or help you down the hall.”

Shaw hated having to rely on someone else for basic things, but right now she wasn't sure she had a choice. The three gunshot wounds throbbed in a slow, agonizing pulse.

“Any more of whatever you guys dosed me with yesterday?” Morphine or something similar, she suspected. Reese must have stolen it from somewhere.

“John made sure we were fully stocked in medical supplies--” Root slid out of bed and knelt on the floor to poke around through a duffel bag near the nightstand. “--and Zoe is going to come by soon with some stuff from your apartment.”

“You mentioned.” She wondered how clearly Root had been thinking last night and what she was allowing herself to remember. Her ability to compartmentalize was impressive. Extremely unhealthy, but impressive.

“Here.” Root had a capped medical syringe when she straightened back up.

Shaw held out her hand, palm up. “No way I'm letting you play doctor. Give.” The last time Root had gotten a needle near her she'd ended up zip-tied to a steering wheel.

A faint smile flickered over Root's face, the first one Shaw was sure was real. She didn't protest the order and only waited quietly until Shaw had managed to clumsily inject herself with the syringe held in her left hand.

The drugs burned through her veins for a long second before soothing away the worst of the pain. Root disappeared briefly to dispose of the syringe and then came back to stand next to the bed.

“Did you….” She paused and pursed her lips. “I'll get you some water.” She ignored the pitcher that had been sitting out since yesterday and vanished into the hall, returning a few minutes later with a glass of cold water.

Shaw wasn't sure how Root knew, how it was much easier to just accept things than to be forced to admit she needed them. It was one of those things Root seemed to have figured out on her own.

The white bandage on Root's side drew her attention.

“Let me take a look at that.”

Root shifted back half a step. “It's fine. John took care of it.”

She was fairly certain Reese had said the cut needed stitches, but Root’s face was closed off in a way that told her this wasn't up for discussion.

“Suit yourself.”

It felt a little uncomfortable now, being unable to move and having Root hovering there.

“Think I'm going to take a shower.”

Root’s eyes widened as if she'd just suggested skydiving with multiple gunshot wounds.

“Isn’t it a bit too soon? I mean I could…”

“If the next words out of your mouth include the words sponge bath, I'm sending you back to the subway. Now go find me something to wrap these bandages with. Saran wrap and medical tape if we've got any.” The medical tape would be almost useless once wet, but she could make it work by wrapping it a lot. Wouldn't be the first time.

Root grabbed the oversized white dress shirt she'd had on the previous night and scurried off, looking almost relieved to have something to do. Shaw started the painful process of getting herself up and over to the edge of the bed. The morphine had helped a lot, but there was still a nearly overwhelming amount of pain when she moved.

She managed to grab her phone off the nightstand. There was only one message, a picture of Bear in the precinct sent by Reese. He was winning all the points with the unprompted dog pictures lately.

“Zoe stopped by while we were asleep.” Root came back in the room carrying a bag. “I think there might be something loose in here you can wear if you'd like.”

She sat down on the bed next to Shaw and started rolling out saran wrap from a thin box. Apparently she thought she was going to be the one to do this. Shaw tried to take the box from her but Root moved it out of reach.

“Root….”

“How, exactly, did you plan to do this with only one working arm?”

She had a point and since Shaw had already protested she could grumble and endure it.

Besides, the fragile look in Root's eyes receded a little every time Shaw let her help.

It was still an uncomfortable process and Shaw was almost willing to call it quits by the time she had the shiny clear plastic wrapped around her, but she felt pretty gross. When Root offered her a hand up she gritted her teeth and let her ease her to her feet.

The trip down the hall to the bathroom was...not something she wanted to remember. It hurt like hell and that was all there was to say about it.

“How were you planning on staying on your feet for this?” Root asked as she propped her up against the sink.

It was a good question, especially since the obvious answer wasn’t on the table. For now, anyway.

Root must have known that because her head was cocked to one side, deep in thought.

“Wait here, I have an idea.”

She came back a few minutes later carrying a short wooden stool that she placed in the shower. They were lucky the shower wasn't part of a bathtub, because Shaw wasn't sure she'd have been able to climb over the side.

She tolerated Root running the water, testing the warmth, and placing the bottles of shampoo on the floor.

“That's fine.” She could handle the rest herself.

Root backed off and went to sit on the floor near the door, the dress shirt soaked and sticking to her. Even in Shaw's current state it looked damn good and some part of her wanted to touch Root's skin through the wet fabric, press her against the sink and take her there while the rising steam from the shower wrapped around them.

Stupid gunshot wounds.

The water hurt, but it also felt amazing as it washed away the remains of the last few days. She'd left the curtain partly open and she glanced over at Root from time to time. She was curled up on herself, staring at the floor with wide, blank eyes. Shaw frowned and went back to trying to figure out how to deal with washing her hair one-armed.

It was warm and quiet in the bathroom with only the sound of the water hitting the shower tiles. Bits and pieces of her dream came back and for a second she considered calling Root over, letting her wrap herself around her under the spray of water.

She redoubled her efforts with the uncooperative shampoo bottle.

Root jumped up when Shaw tried to stand, hurrying to help, and soon she was wrapped in a fuzzy towel and perched on the closed toilet lid, recovering.

“Clothes?” Root's voice was quiet, a bit distant.

“Going back to sleep, I think. Be a waste.” The warmth of the shower combined with the drugs in her system made her feel like her brain was wrapped in heavy cotton.

“Should dry your hair a little then.”

And before Shaw had a chance to argue another fuzzy towel was dumped over her head and Root was carefully massaging her head through it. She could have protested, but the fingers rubbing her scalp felt nice.

“I think there's a hairdryer around here somewhere.”

Root's hands vanished and Shaw pulled the towel away with her good arm.

“It's good enough.”

Root didn't say anything else while she unwrapped the sodden medical tape and peeled off the saran wrap. The silence lingered as she helped her back down the hall and into bed. 

“Your turn,” Shaw said. Her eyelids were drooping already.

“My turn for what, sweetie?”

“Go take a shower. You've still got dried blood in your hair for fuck’s sake.”

Root half-raised a hand towards her hair and then hesitated.

“Are you… What if…” She took a deep breath. “You're right. I'll be quick.”

Shaw didn't know if she was because she passed out almost immediately and didn't wake up until Root came back, wrapped in a towel with her damp hair hanging in stringy locks around her. She stood by the door, uncertainty on her face.

“You getting in?”

“You're hurt.”

“I was hurt last night.”

Root's skin was still damp and her hair smelled nice and clean again. She was soft and warm and safe and Shaw was asleep again before she could decide if those thoughts should worry her.

 

* * *

 

The nightmares were persistent these days. Root had three in the first week at the townhouse, all the same.

So far she'd only woken Shaw up once, but this time, as she fought her way back to the surface of consciousness, Shaw was already awake, watching her. She'd shaken her out of the dream, Root realized and immediately felt useless for needing that.

She took a few seconds to make sure she had herself under control before she met Shaw's eyes. They were much like they'd been the first night after the stock exchange, quiet and without judgement.

“What time is it?” She didn't really care but she needed to say something.

“About seven.” Shaw tilted her head to one side. “I, uh, I'm a bit hungry. Think I could get something from downstairs?”

It was instantly easier for Root to breathe. Helping Shaw came before drowning in her own thoughts.

“Of course. I think we're running a little low on supplies, but John’s going to stop by later.”

She held back the smile until she was out in the hallway. Shaw had sent her on this errand for a reason, and it wasn't because she was hungry. Or not just because of that.

She prided herself on being able to pick up on Shaw's small tells--the way she stood or shifted when she didn't want to be touched, the way the stiffness went out of her when she was enjoying their contact, the small, amused smiles when she got a kick out of some extra crazy plan Root dragged her into--but she'd never expected Shaw to be able to read her so well in return. No one could read her; her entire life had been a practice in self-obfuscation.

She’d thought she'd been taking care of Shaw this past week, but maybe it wasn’t that simple. Before Shaw she'd never gotten things in return, but then she'd never given much either.

Shaw grumbled a bit when Root fussed over her later that morning, but it was mostly just for show.

“You gonna get dressed or just parade around naked all day?” Shaw had mastered the art of zipping up a hoodie one-handed and was dressed, sitting in the edge of the bed.

“I thought it might speed up your recovery.”

Shaw didn't even try to hide the way her gaze lingered on her body and while Root definitely didn't mind the attention (quite the contrary really, every time Shaw looked at her it made her heart hammer like a lovesick teenager) she was getting a little...frustrated that they couldn't act on it. It was far too soon for Shaw to engage in any vigorous activity, so for the time being Root was stuck taking longer showers.

“Why wouldn't you let me put stitches in that?”

Shaw's question snapped her out of her train of thought. She looked down at the healing cut on her side. It wasn't nearly as long as the nasty scar on her ribcage, but it was definitely going to leave a mark.

“How were you going to do that with only one hand?”

“I’d have managed. Or we coulda gotten Reese to help.”

“I hear scars are considered quite sexy and badass by some, so I'm collecting them.” She winked, hoping for an exasperated eye roll and an easy escape.

Shaw sighed and looked away. “You'd have died, you know.”

It was a response to the answer she hadn't given. Maybe it wasn't her fault, but it still felt like it.

And she needed a reminder that making the wrong decision could put Shaw in danger again.

She got dressed quickly after that, fending off the silence in the room by focusing on the soft music She was playing for her, an intimately familiar song and the only one she wanted to hear right now.

“No new numbers, I suppose?” Shaw asked as Root finished pulling on her shirt.

“None that She's told me about.”

“And nothing more on Samaritan?”

Root shook her head. She was aware of how bored and frustrated Shaw was while stuck here, but there wasn't much that could be done about that.

Shaw looked so sullen and adorable in her baggy sweatpants and hoodie that if it hadn't been for the bullet wound situation, Root would have been in her lap kissing her cranky little face. Since that was out of the question she settled for sitting down next to her, not quite touching, but close enough to feel her warmth.

“I need to go outside.”

“The stairs….” Even if Shaw had been willing to let her carry her down she didn't think she was up for that yet. The last time she'd carried her...well, Shaw would never go for it so it was a moot point.

“I'm gonna shoot someone if I'm stuck in here much longer. I need some air.”

Maybe there was another way.

“Let's try something.”

She got up and offered Shaw her hand. Shaw regarded it with suspicion.

“What're we trying?”

“Trust me.”

Shaw rolled her eyes at her little grin but took her hand.

 

* * *

 

The bedroom in the front of the townhouse had a huge floor-to-ceiling window that opened out over the street. The small ledge with its ornate iron railing didn’t qualify as a balcony, but it was outside enough that the drizzle of rain could fall on their faces.

Shaw felt like she could finally breathe again.

“Better?”

Root was pressed lightly up against her back, one hand resting on the railing on either side of her. A few months ago Shaw would have felt trapped and shoved her away, but now she felt secure, a strange new awareness that she wasn't going to question too much yet.

“A little. Still could do with a real change of scenery.”

“Always in such a rush.”

“Can't tell me you're not getting stir crazy here, too.” Other than her little outing with Reese, she didn't think Root had left the house once all week. Hell, she barely ever left whatever room Shaw was in for more than a few minutes.

“Mmm, you do drive me crazy, sweetie.”

Shaw didn't respond, choosing instead to focus on enjoying the touch of the rain on her face and arms. The air might have been filled with all the questionable, damp Manhattan smells, but it was still fresher than the inside of the townhouse. The warm breeze and the sound of raindrops hitting the pavement eased away a little of the tension.

“Sorry about earlier.”

It was the first time she'd heard Root acknowledge her bad dreams without being prompted.

“Nothing to be sorry for.”

She couldn't keep her safe from dreams, but she could be there when she woke up.

She wasn't surprised when Root let it drop. She seemed so brittle this last week, like any sudden movements might make her crumble to dust.

And yet, at the same time, Shaw could tell she'd been on the alert since they'd come out here. She'd seen the gun tucked in the back of her waistband and had no doubt she'd take a shot at anyone who even looked at them sideways, merited or not.

She wished she knew how to put it into words, that moment of realization she'd had in the elevator. Everything that had happened in this last week had been proof of that moment, of how whatever this was they had worked. How could she understand something so deeply and not have any words for it?

“You ready to go back inside?” Root's breath tickled against her ear.

“In a few minutes, maybe. It's nice out here.”

They leaned on each other in the summer rain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [quote source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feedback#cite_note-3)
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> I miss nyc in the rain quite a lot.
> 
> The quote at the beginning I'd meant to save for whatever the last chapter of this turns out to be, but it felt like it fit here.
> 
> I've got about 7-8 more requests but some of them might be combined. Also now I kind of want to write Shaw's shower sex fantasy so maybe I'll fit that in somewhere.


	8. Cravate Noire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place after the mayhem-trio-ruins-a-wedding incident in chapter 37.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is very E rated. I think it crosses off 2-3 requests on the list.
> 
> Still not completely happy with it, but it's hit the point where I've either got to post it or suffer forever.
> 
> contains: strap-ons, ineffective-but-aesthetically-pleasing bondage, rough sex, willful mistreatment of formal attire.

“What would you even do with a horse?” Shaw shut the door to the apartment behind them and locked it. “And when would you have time to ride it?”

Root had kept on with her ridiculous idea about stealing the horse she'd ridden earlier for most of the way back from the wedding. The wistful look on her face when she talked about it was almost a bit endearing, not that Shaw would ever admit that out loud.

Root had the sad puppy dog eyes going full force, which Shaw was pleased to say had absolutely no effect on her whatsoever. Maybe Root had wanted a horse as a kid or some shit. Didn't really fit her mental image of kid Root, but what did she know?

“Can we at least table this until after we defeat the evil AI trying to kill us?” Shaw kicked off her heels and dumped her coat on the couch.

She wasn't giving in; she was putting it off until later when Root (hopefully) would have forgotten about it. They already had Bear. A smelly horse was unnecessary.

“Of course, sweetie.” Root pranced (and really there was no other word for it) over to her and looped her arms around behind her neck. “And anyway, I think we have more important things to discuss now.”

“Like what?” Maybe Root wanted a cat, too, or something. She seemed the type.

Root raised an eyebrow suggestively.

“ _Oh_. Right. Much more important.” And better than talking about unnecessary horse theft.

“Mmhmm.” Root brushed their lips together for the briefest of moments.

“You’ve been _so_ nice to me all day, Sameen, maybe I can be nice in return now? Or not so nice. Whatever you're in the mood for.”

Had she been being nice all day? Mostly she'd been cranky at being forced to sit through a dumb wedding full of insipid, rich people and subpar finger-food. Maybe this was about that dance at the end of the night, but Root didn't need to thank her for that. She just hadn't liked the thought of Root being sad and mopey later because she hadn't asked her for one silly dance.

It hadn't cost her anything and it had meant a lot to Root, and that was what was important here.

“Might be fun to unwind from a long day with a hot shower,” Root continued, brushing her lips along the side of Shaw's neck.

Shaw slid her hands down Root's sides and around to the low cut in the back of her dress, fingers running along her bare skin.

“Might be.”

“Or did you have something else in mind?” Root watched her expectantly, a teasing smile on her lips.

Shaw hesitated. Letting Root in on one of her, uh, imaginative ideas felt like conceding a point in some unspoken game. Root would probably be smug about it after.

Oh well. Some things were worth a little smugness.

“Remember after the stock exchange when you had to borrow that shirt?”

Root stiffened slightly. “Yes, I remember.”

Probably a bad thing to bring up. Shaw barely even thought about that whole disaster in the basement anymore, but it lingered in Root's eyes.

She hurried on, hoping she hadn't killed the mood.

“Mmm, you got it all wet running the shower for me. Was a real shame I wasn’t able to do anything about that.” She dug her fingers into Root's back a little, ran them up and down her spine until the tension eased away.

“You know, I was wearing a shirt like that earlier tonight.”

“Yeah, I kinda noticed that.” Possibly the understatement of the year there. Root looked fantastic in the dress, but the fitted suit she'd worn earlier? Unfair.

Shaw leaned up to kiss her again, her tongue pushing into her mouth. She turned them around so she could press Root back against the kitchen counter, probably hard enough to leave a bruise. Something about the way Root was looking at her told her she was in the mood for a little roughness tonight.

“Sounds fun. Should I wear anything else?” Root's voice was a low drawl.

“No, nothing else.” Just the thought of it was stirring up heat low inside her.

“Let me go get changed then.”

Root kissed her one last time before brushing past her.

“Meet me in the bathroom,” Shaw called after her.

She made a brief trip to the bedroom to discard all her clothes in a heap on the floor. Tidying up could wait until there were less urgent matters at hand.

Her apartment was way nicer than anything she'd had previously, a benefit of the ludicrous salary Zoe (or rather the Machine) was paying her. She made more than enough to rent this place without drawing Samaritan’s suspicion and one of the benefits was a separate tub and large shower stall.

Once she started the water running, she set the temperature to about what Root left it at after showering (it still felt a little weird that she knew what that was), and watched as the steam started to rise and fill the room.

She turned around when she heard the bathroom door shut and gaped silently for a minute, all coherent thoughts driven from her mind.

Root definitely was wearing the button-down white dress shirt from earlier--the top two buttons undone and its bottom hem falling just to the tops of her thighs--but she also had a thin, black tie loosely knotted around her neck. She looked far too pleased with herself for Shaw's liking, but damn maybe it was merited in this case.

Shaw licked her lips and tried to find her voice. “You just gonna stand there all night?”

Root wove her fingers around the tie and waggled the end at her.

“I know you said not to wear anything else, but…”

“No complaints here.” _Definitely_ no complaints.

There was no way she was maintaining a cool and unaffected demeanor here so she might as well just go with it, she figured. She crossed the floor to grab Root by her shirt collar, pulling her down into a kiss while walking them backwards until she had her pressed up against the door, only the thin, white shirt separating them.

The shirt was a bit stiff and scratchy where it rubbed up against her but oh, so worth it when she moved a hand between them to palm Root's breast through the fabric.

She took her time, kissing her thoroughly, biting at her lip and then her neck. Root's face was already a little flushed and her hair was starting to curl in the humidity. Her skin felt hot beneath Shaw's mouth, and tasted faintly of sweat. Shaw wavered briefly, considered just taking her right there against the door in the rising sea of steam. But that wasn't the plan here.

“Someone’s into formal wear, hmm?” Root murmured into her ear, one hand squeezing her ass almost lazily.

Yep, she was totally going to be a smug brat.

“Come on then.” She grabbed one of Root's wrists and pulled her after her across the room and under the stream of water in the shower.

The water was almost too hot and she saw Root suck in a breath when it hit her. The dress shirt was soaked through within seconds, see-through and plastered to Root's skin and yeah, that was a good look for sure. She finally tore her gaze away from the stellar view of Root's nipples covered in damp fabric to look at her face.

Root's hair was dark and wet now, sticking to her face and falling down over her shoulder in long strands. Shaw captured her other wrist and moved them back so Root was out of the direct spray, up against the side of the shower with both her arms pinned to the tile wall.

“Okay?” she asked, because even if Root seemed pretty into this lately she always checked.

And Root always responded by going all mushy at her like she was now, dopey little smile and soft eyes.

“Okay.”

Shaw lowered her head to bite at one breast through the wet shirt. The fabric’s texture was unpleasant in her mouth, not quite as sexy as she'd imagined, but the little, breathy gasp that escaped from Root was very, very good.

She gave up on the shirt situation and released one of Root's hands (with a look warning her not to move it) so she could clumsily undo a few buttons and pull the shirt aside enough to actually get her mouth on her. She closed her teeth around one nipple, just hard enough to draw another delightful sound from her, and then went to work with her tongue. Her hand went back to pin Root firmly against the wall.

“Sameen...” No one had ever said her name the way Root did in moments like these, like it was a secret wish she'd never told anyone else.

She withdrew her mouth (a little regretfully), and met Root's eyes, studying her closely.

“What's on your mind, sweetie?” Root looked half gone already.

“You are.”

It should have been cliché, a cheesy response that would normally fall under Root's purview, but it came out slightly awkward and a little defensive.

Root's eyes widened and she tried to lean in and kiss her, but Shaw moved out of reach, the hint of a smile on her lips.

“What do you want, Root? Right now, what?”

She saw a shiver run through Root's entire body.

“Whatever you’re…”

Shaw shook her head, cutting her off. “Can get to that in a minute. But right now….” Something about the way Root was so eager to give her anything tonight made her want to give her something in exchange. “Just ask.” She echoed her words from earlier.

Because she'd figured out that this was part of how this thing between them should work. She didn't always pick up on every one of Root's little tells, so she needed her to communicate with her, be willing to ask. And even though Root had never had any problem with that when it came to sex, she kind of wanted to drive home the point from earlier. It was easier for her when Root spoke up because then she just _knew_ what to do instead of having to work through the puzzle that was Root. Then she could jump right to the part where she gave her what she wanted.

“I want….” Root's voice was soft, almost a whisper, and for a minute Shaw wondered if what she was thinking about had anything at all to do with where they were right now.

“I want to go down on you. Here.”

Shaw was silent for a beat and then chuckled. “Be my guest.” She released her hands and they repositioned so that Shaw was the one up against the wall, Root standing in front of her with the water hitting her back.

Root sank to her knees and wrapped her hands around the backs of Shaw's thighs, digging her nails in hard enough to draw a hiss out of her. Fuck, she loved it when Root did that.

She brushed her hands through Root's hair once and then continued down. With one hand she grasped the silky, wet tie around Root's neck and tugged lightly on it, something she'd been thinking about doing since Root had shown up wearing the damn thing. The other hand she slipped between her own legs, running her fingers over and through herself and feeling how damn wet she'd gotten just from a little making out.

Root tried to lean in, put her mouth on her, but Shaw pulled sharply on the tie once--not enough to constrict, just enough to get the message across. Wait.

And Root actually did wait, with the hot water pouring down her back and a front row seat to Shaw touching herself. Her hands twitched against Shaw's thighs and she licked her lips.

“Shaw…” There was only the slightest hint of desperation in Root's voice.

“You want something?” Teasing her would never stop being fun.

Root leaned back, a peeved little look in her eyes, and started kneading her own breast though that damned shirt. Her eyes were shut and a moan fell from her lips (completely faked in Shaw's opinion, but damn did it still do things to her).

A small, choked noise that she would never admit to escaped her and she pulled on Root's tie again, this time urging her forward.

She hadn't moved her fingers from where they were lazily circling so Root wrapped her mouth around them, slid her tongue between them to taste her. There was something intensely erotic about feeling Root's tongue on her fingers as she touched herself and she couldn't help but rock her hips into her. Root's hands returned to grip her thighs and for a few long, delicious minutes there was nothing but the sensation of Root's mouth on her.

The moment ended abruptly when Root sat back, breathing in short pants. Her face was flushed redder than Shaw had seen before. It _was_ really hot in here with the shower going and all.

“You okay?” Her hands came to rest in Root's hair, brushing back the wet locks from her face.

Root looked up at her, an impish smile on her face. “My turn.” She moved back in, now completely unobstructed.

“Brat,” Shaw said, or tried to say. Her voice was cut off abruptly by the touch of Root's tongue. She tightened her fingers in her hair and spread her legs just a little wider to pull Root against her.

Root took her time now, getting her revenge by teasing her with only the softest of touches, backing off before Shaw could find any relief. Shaw pulled at her hair just enough to be painful and Root dug her fingernails deeper into Shaw's thighs in approval.

Root drew it out as long as she could, licking and sucking Shaw all wet and messy, moaning into her when she tugged on her hair. She finally slipped two fingers into Shaw and curled them inside her, her mouth still on her, tongue soft and insistent.

Root’s tongue felt so good against her, and the guttural noises of enjoyment coming from her could be heard over the roar of the shower. Shaw rocked her hips into Root as the pressure inside her grew. The steam from the shower, Root's soft, wet mouth, the heat burning through her entire body, it was all drowning her in a sea of sensations.

Her fingers spasmed in Root's hair when she came and then loosened as she collapsed her weight back onto the wall.

Root climbed back to her feet and propped her up with her body, kissing her over and over until she'd recovered enough to be sure of her balance in the shower.

“Really have a thing for the tie, huh?” Root's smug look was back and Shaw would have been annoyed about that if she hadn’t still been enjoying the little aftershocks of pleasure running through her.

“Really have a thing for you in a tie.”

The admission was worth it for the way Root's face lit up.

“Sameen…” Root leaned against her and put her mouth right next to her ear. “Wanna fuck me?”

Definitely not what she'd expected to follow the almost-tender whisper of her name, but this was Root after all. She rested her hands on Root's hips, ran her thumbs over the bottom of the wet shirt.

“That was the plan.”

Root just looked at her pointedly until her still-slightly-blissed-out-brain caught up.

“ _Oh_. Right.” This was not helping with her focus. “Uhm, yes?”

Smooth. She covered by reaching to turn the water off.

“Give me a few minutes.”

“As much time as you need, sweetie.”

 

* * *

 

Root mopped the condensation off the bathroom sink counter with a towel. The long counter was mostly empty (Shaw stored all her stuff in the cabinet to help maintain that minimalistic look she was into), and was set into the wall a bit so that there were mirrors on both sides as well as behind it. So much potential.

She briefly contemplated drawing a heart on the fogged-up glass but instead went for a stick-figure horse. Or tried to anyway. It looked more like a broken table. She scrubbed it away regretfully.

She’d abandoned the soaked shirt as soon as Shaw had left the room because, frankly, it had just been uncomfortable and now that Shaw had gotten the full benefit of it she was thoroughly over it. She did leave the tie on, though (after wringing it out) since Shaw had been enjoying it so very much. The occasional reminder that, after all this time, she could still render Shaw speechless was gratifying.

Why not try for twice in one night?

She hopped up on the edge of the counter and leaned back on her hands to ensure Shaw would get the maximum effect when she came back.

And Shaw definitely _did_ do a small double-take when she entered the bathroom, but Root’s brain was busy short-circuiting at the sight of Shaw with her long hair down and still wet from the shower, wearing only a strap-on.

It must have shown on her face because Shaw chuckled and shook her head ever so slightly.

“Don't pass out yet, Root.”

“Wouldn't dream of it.”

Root stretched a hand out towards her and Shaw stepped within her reach, ignoring her hand and moving right up against the edge of the counter between her legs. She grabbed Root's tie with one hand and guided her down into a messy kiss. Root hooked her ankles behind Shaw's calves to pull her in even closer, whimpering into Shaw's mouth at the feel of the strap-on pressed between them, already lubed up and slippery. She ran her hands over as much as Shaw as she could: her breasts, her stomach, her sides, her warm back and heavy hair. At some point she'd stopped being surprised by her desperate need to feel the body of one particular person so close to her own.

She was so lost in the feeling of Shaw's skin that it took her by surprise when Shaw's fingers slipped between her legs. She broke away from the kiss with a gasp as Shaw's fingers played with her, circling and stroking, building her up slowly.

When she started grinding into Shaw's hand, Shaw slid one finger into her, curled it inside her and then added another. She set an easy pace that felt good in all the right ways, but wasn't quite enough. Root wanted more tonight, wanted Shaw to take her hard and rough so she’d be feeling the ache of it in the morning.

“Sweetie--” She looked Shaw straight in the eyes. “--when I said I wanted you to fuck me…” She raised an eyebrow at her.

The little grin on Shaw's face said she was quite aware of what Root actually wanted. “Good things come to those who wait, Root.”

“How about making me come from some good things instead of waiting?”

Shaw rolled her eyes and withdrew her fingers, making Root whimper a little at the loss. “Just for that I should leave you here.”

“After I was so nice to you in the shower?”

She didn't think she was in any danger of Shaw actually leaving, especially not with the way her gaze was flicking over her body right now, but she could play this game.

“Wanna see a trick?” She loosened the tie enough to pull it over her head and then put both her hands through the loop. She grabbed the thinner tail with her teeth and pulled, twisting her wrists against the tension to pull it tight. It wasn't particularly effective as a restraint, but that wasn't the point right now.

“Learned all about knots in the girl scouts.” She winked at Shaw.

“We both know you were never in the girl scouts. They don't give out badges for tasing people.” Shaw sounded exasperated but her eyes were locked on the dark material binding Root's wrists. Shaw liked to see her tied up almost as much as Shaw liked being tied up herself.

“True. Wanna earn a badge of your own tonight?”

Shaw narrowed her eyes. “For what?”

“Fucking a lady senseless. Probably a community service badge.”

“Pretty sure I got that one already.”

Root dropped her bound hands over Shaw's head so they rested behind her neck, nestled in her damp hair. “Maybe it's time to get recertified.”

“That's not how….”

She cut Shaw off with another kiss, and this time, when they separated, Shaw looked focused.

Root sucked in her breath when Shaw slid the tip into her. Shaw went slow, giving her time to adjust, watching with rapt attention as she inched the strap-on further in. One of her hands rested on Root's hip and rubbed small circles while she waited for her to be ready for more.

Root let out a long, shaky breath as the strap-on stretched her out. As the slight discomfort eased away, she wrapped a leg around Shaw and pulled her in closer.

They started a steady rhythm between them, Shaw bracing Root with her hands wrapped around her hips, and god did it feel good with Shaw moving so deep inside her. She brushed their mouths together and captured Shaw's lip between her teeth, biting hard enough to split it. Shaw made a noise suspiciously close to a whine and sped up her pace.

Root's head fell forward to rest on one of her arms and her other leg curved around Shaw, urging her on. It was fast and hard now, the strap-on filling her up, building exquisite tension within her, and Shaw's thrusts rocking into her with enough force that she might have been pushed back if not for the hands gripping her hips.

With her hands bound she couldn't claw at Shaw's back so she dug her fingers into her own palms, the small points of pain only adding to the mass of sensations thrumming through her. She buried her face in the side of Shaw's neck, opened her mouth against her skin and then bit down as hard as she could, relishing the deep groan she felt vibrate through Shaw's throat.

“Fuck. Root.” Shaw's voice came out as a groan near her ear and it was the sound of her name that pushed her over into a delicious spiral of pleasure, her legs tightening around Shaw as she came.

Shaw followed after her only a minute later, bracing herself on the counter with one hand as she tensed and then relaxed within the circle of Root's arms.

“So,” Shaw said when she'd recovered, “did I earn my merit badge?” She ran her nose up the column of Root's throat almost playfully.

“Mmm.” It was the only response Root could manage, especially with the strap-on still buried deep inside her, pressing against her in all the right places. Shaw looked so good right now, with her lower lip all swollen and the marks from Root's teeth still red on her neck. Root smiled lazily. Everything between them felt so right in this moment, so deeply connected.

She let out a startled yelp when Shaw rolled her hips forward. Sparks of pleasure shot through her and okay, yes, she could definitely go for seconds. But….

“Wait a second.”

Shaw stilled immediately. “You done?”

“No, but can we reposition a bit?”

Shaw pulled out of her, stepped back but left her hands on Root's hips, her thumbs still rubbing small circles over her skin. Root easily loosened the tie around her wrists and released Shaw from the circle of her arms before she slid off the counter. It took her a second to get her balance-- her legs shaky beneath her--but Shaw's hands were still there, steadying her. She turned around and scrubbed at the condensation on the mirror with one hand.

“You need to fix your hair or something?”

“I want to watch in the mirror this time.” Root grinned back over her shoulder at Shaw.

Shaw’s eyebrows shot up and then she returned the grin. “I can get behind that.”

“Well, mostly I need you to get behind _me_.”

She winked at her (just to be sure she got the eye roll she'd been trying for) before she leaned forward onto the counter, resting her weight on her elbows and forearms. The mirror was a bit smudged and droplets of water still trickled down it, but it gave her a pretty great view of Shaw as she stepped up behind her and ran her eyes up and down the length of her body.

Root's breath stuttered out when Shaw pushed back into her and the look on Shaw's face in the mirror made everything inside her tighten and clench. Fuck but she'd never get over the way Shaw looked at her in moments like this.

Shaw didn't start slowly this time, but went right to an almost frantic pace that had Root clawing ineffectually at the smooth counter top. She tried to meet Shaw's thrusts with her hips but it was all she could do to hold herself up. She could hear Shaw's ragged breaths behind her, feel the press of her fingers as she held Root steady.

Shaw shifted her angle ever so slightly and Root's head fell forward onto the counter. The uninterrupted stream of desperate sounds that escaped her was beyond her ability to control. One of Shaw's hands scratched lines down her spine and fuck she wasn't going to last long at all like this. She managed to raise her head back up to take in the view of Shaw moving behind her, eyes dark and focused, lips parted, both their bodies flushed and slick with sweat as Shaw pounded into her. It was just about the best goddamn thing she'd ever seen in her life and when Shaw looked up to meet her eyes in the mirror she lost all control, her body trembling and clenching hard.

She might have lost consciousness for a second because the next thing she was aware of was Shaw pulling out of her, supporting her with one arm wrapped around under her stomach.

“If I let go are you gonna fall over?” Shaw sounded amused and perhaps a bit affectionate, though that could have been Root's blissed-out brain misfiring.

Words were currently not happening so Root settled for shaking her head. A warm and heavy exhaustion had settled over her and she wanted to curl up under the covers and sleep for about ten years.

“Okay, well, not my fault if you do then.”

Shaw’s arm around her was gone, and while she didn't collapse, she did turn around and slide down to sit on the floor in a content little heap, relishing the pleasant ache between her legs. Shaw had wandered off somewhere and she could hear the shower running again and maybe she fell asleep there for a bit but then Shaw was back dragging her up to her feet and guiding her under a warm shower spray.

Shaw vanished while she was making clumsy attempts at washing herself up, but reappeared soon enough to turn off the water and wrap a towel around her. She must have looked really gone, because this was a level of pampering she rarely got.

“If I leave you here to get ready for bed, am I gonna come back to find you asleep on the floor?”

“I'll be okay.” Probably a 50/50 chance she was right.

The shower must have helped a lot because she managed to finish up in the bathroom and drift out into the bedroom without falling over. The bed was very soft (had it always been this soft?) and as soon as she got settled someone pulled the covers up over her.

“Sameen?” She struggled to stay awake.

“Yeah?”

“Did you have a good time today? Earlier?”

“Well, I'm not a huge fan of weddings and the food was awful, but it, uh, wasn't all bad, you know?”

“Really?”

“Yes, really, you loser.”

“Which parts weren't all bad?”

Somewhere close by, Shaw chuckled. “Go to sleep, Root.”

Shaw’s hand rested on her back, a warm weight dragging her down into a deep, peaceful sleep.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> necessary concerned adult warning: steamy bathrooms lead to slippery floors. please take proper precautions to avoid falling and cracking your skull. concussions aren't sexy.
> 
> Still got a bunch of requests to get through.


	9. Release

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place between chapter 11 (when Decima tries to get them to trade Root to them) and chapter 12 (the beta test).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd been thinking about writing this particular part for awhile now.
> 
> E rated
> 
> content includes: handcuffs

“I didn't ask to be in charge of this whole--” Shaw waved her arm around as if to include the entire street they were walking down. “--thing. But I am and that's partly your doing.”

Root hid a smile. “I'm aware of that.” She knew that Shaw would never have been even slightly inclined to take charge of a team unless there were no other viable options. It was probably why she was so good at it.

“That means when you try to run off and do dumb shit like handing yourself over to Decima, you're making my job harder.” Shaw didn't sound angry, in fact her voice had its usual neutral cadence, but the fact that she was bringing this up despite the whole mess being behind them suggested it was still very much on her mind.

Decima had made their play and other than Reese's fancy new scar they'd walked away unscathed. But then Shaw had shown up at the safe house tonight while Root was working with her team and talked her into stopping by her loft for some fun.

And apparently for a lecture.

“Do you want me to...apologize?” Root's inflection made it clear what type of apologizing she had in mind.

Shaw opened the front door to her building and motioned Root inside. “No, I just want you to trust me, okay? If something comes up, you don't have to go running off on your own. I can help if you let me do my damn job.”

The problem, of course, was that Root _did_ trust her, and that was still a bit terrifying. Trust was something she reserved for Her, not for humans in all their small-minded, selfish glory. But Shaw....

Terrifying...but also thrilling.

Shaw pushed the button for the elevator and turned back to her, waiting for an acknowledgement. Root stepped up to her and brushed a strand of hair back behind her ear.

“I'm not going anywhere, Shaw.” Not unless the Machine told her to anyway, and she knew that wasn't what Shaw had meant.

Shaw turned away from her, back towards the elevator. “Good.”

Root gave her some distance as they rode the elevator up, leaning against the far side of the car. Shaw had been so focused on her since she'd come to find her in the library a few days ago, as if she'd been convinced Root would slip away the second she took her eyes off her. She'd been surprised when Shaw had shown up tonight; she'd assumed that Shaw would want some space.

Apparently she'd been wrong.

“You hungry?” Shaw asked as they entered her loft. “I already ate, but there's probably something in the fridge.”

“I'm fine.” Root drifted over to the couch. The couch Shaw had bought so she could sleep there. She still couldn't believe that, especially since she'd only stayed over twice (admittedly she usually hurried out before Shaw could offer, because what if she didn't offer? better not to know), but the Machine had been very sure of Shaw's reasons.

She settled herself on the cushions with her legs curled under her and watched Shaw move around her own space, taking off her jacket and dropping her phone and keys on the dresser. She still felt a little out of place here in Shaw's loft, at odds with the sparse and simple decor. She looked down at her hands folded in her lap, each nail perfectly painted with black polish. She'd never felt quite as much like an intruder here as she had recently, and that included the times she'd actually broken in.

Maybe that was because Shaw invited her fairly regularly now. Breaking in was far less complicated than being invited.

“Here.”

A pair of simple metal handcuffs landed in her lap and she looked up in surprise to find that Shaw had snuck up on her again.

“You up for some fun?” The aggravation Shaw had shown on the way here was gone and her eyes were bright and excited.

Root fidgeted with the metal cuffs in her lap, chewing on her lip while she thought things through, made sure she knew what she was doing.

“Actually, Shaw…” She took a deep breath and continued. “I was thinking maybe we could switch things up this time?”

Her eyes were on the cuffs in her lap but in her peripheral vision she saw Shaw shift her weight. She wondered what look Shaw had on her face now. She knew from the CIA safe house that Shaw had been _very_ into the idea of tying her up.

And she'd also backed off the second she'd sensed Root's reluctance. Root wondered if that hadn't made her fall for her a little bit all the way back then.

“I thought….” Shaw paused. “Is this about earlier?”

_I just want you to trust me, okay?_

So many layers of complication for such a simple request.

“A little, maybe.” As a rule, she tried very hard not to lie to Shaw. “But mostly I think it'd be fun to try something new.” She looked up at Shaw, saw the hesitation in her eyes and felt warmth spread through her. “I wouldn't ask for something if I didn't want it.”

Shaw stayed still for a long moment, studying her.

“Okay,” she said at last and leaned down to take the cuffs from her. “But not these.”

She moved back over to her dresser and Root took the opportunity to slip off her jacket and shoes while Shaw rummaged around.

“Here.”

Shaw came back with a different pair of cuffs, nylon instead of metal and fastened with velcro. She handed them to Root and waited expectantly until she realized she was supposed to approve them.

And something about that made the slight nervous flutter in her stomach subside.

She dropped the cuffs on the couch next to her and stood up, sliding her arms around Shaw's waist and leaning in to kiss her.

Shaw’s mouth was soft and demanding on her own, and her hands grasped Root's hips to pull her in closer. It felt good to have Shaw's body against hers, soothing and exciting at the same time. Shaw had said she'd come get her back if Decima ever captured her and she believed that, believed that whatever this connection between them was it was more than just these fleeting stolen moments they shared.

She let her hands drift under the bottom of Shaw's shirt so she could splay her fingers across her warm sides. Shaw broke away long enough to pull her shirt over her head and drop it to the floor, her bra following quickly after.

It was far from the first time Root had seen Shaw half-naked, but she always had just the slightest moment of stunned awe every time. Would it bother Shaw if she knew how beautiful she found her? Was that too soft a word for Shaw to allow?

She kissed Shaw again before her face could give her away, dropped her hands to Shaw's hips, and walked her backwards across the room to push her down onto the bed and crawl on top of her.

Shaw had that small smile on her lips that she only got when she was looking forward to some quality violence or sex. She let Root pin her wrists and take her time thoroughly paying attention to every inch of her neck and chest.

“Root?”

She looked up through the curtain of her own hair, her mouth still on Shaw's breast.

“Hmm?” Possibly impolite to talk with her mouth full, but she wasn't planning on moving without good reason, so oh well.

“If Samaritan comes online…”

She bit gently at Shaw's nipple to cut her off and then raised her head regretfully.

“When. When it comes online.” Why was Shaw bringing this up now?

“Okay, _when_ Samaritan comes online, what happens to the Machine?”

Somehow in all their discussions this was one thing they'd never gone into in full detail.

“She'll have to be very careful. We've built in some precautions that should hopefully enable Her to communicate with us safely, but not as freely as She does now.” She lowered her head and ran her tongue over Shaw's nipple in a long, slow stroke, watching Shaw's face as she did so.

Shaw exhaled a shaky breath and pushed back lightly against where Root's hands still pinned her own. “And what about you?”

Root sighed and sat up, releasing her. “Shaw….”

“Will she still be able to talk to you? Watch your back?”

“Somewhat, but like I said, She’ll have to be a lot more careful.” The topic was kind of a mood-killer, especially since neither she nor the Machine knew how limited their communication would have to be yet. She'd been trying not to think about that. “Why are you asking now of all times?”

Shaw tilted her head to one side. “Dunno, honestly.”

“Well--” Root rearranged herself a little so she could get at Shaw's belt. “--if you figure out why, feel free to let me know. But in the meantime--” She undid the buckle and zipper and waited for Shaw to lift her hips so she could slide her pants off. “--we've got more important matters to discuss.”

She did her best to keep Shaw busy enough that she wouldn't have a chance to expand on the thought, but there was something ever so slightly different in Shaw's eyes tonight. Root might have had two fingers buried deep inside her, but there was a strangely contemplative look on Shaw's face that resurfaced in between the moans and curses.

Since she wasn't completely sure what to make of that, she took the easy escape of sliding down Shaw's body to settle between her legs.

There was nothing about sex with Shaw that she didn't love, but being able to look up the length of Shaw's body while she pushed her to the edge (see the sheen of sweat on her skin, the way her lips were parted, her dark eyes staring right back down at her) was close to her favorite.

“Now, what did you want to know about the Machine?” Root asked once Shaw was recovering, panting and sweaty beside her.

“Fucked if I remember.” Shaw reached up to pull her down into a kiss.

“You still want to try the other thing?” Shaw asked when they separated long enough for her to get the question out.

Root glanced back at the couch where she'd left the cuffs. There was still a thread of worry in her at the idea of losing that much control, but right now, with the eager tension thrumming through her body, the fear felt good, exciting.

“Sounds like fun.”

She discarded the remaining pieces of clothing she still had on as Shaw got up to fetch the cuffs, and lay back on the bed waiting for her.

The way Shaw's eyes trailed over her body sent a shiver through her. She knew Shaw wanted her, had wanted her almost since the beginning, but every little proof of that was a precious commodity to be collected and filed away.

“Give me your hand.” Shaw sat next to her on the bed but didn't reach for her. Her fingers were firm but gentle when she touched Root's offered wrist. She carefully fastened the first cuff on--keeping Root's wrist between them so she could easily watch the process--and then waited, making no move for her other hand.

She got what Shaw was up to--going so slowly and carefully as if she were a skittish animal--and even though she didn't generally enjoy being treated this delicately, it was so unlike Shaw to coddle her this way that it was kind of sweet (a word which Shaw would no doubt strongly object to).

When it became clear that Shaw wasn't going to make another move until she did, Root raised her free arm over her head, wrapped her fingers loosely around a bar on the headboard. Shaw finally moved to pull her already-bound wrist up and slide the other cuff through the bars. Root drew in her breath as she felt the soft band wrap around her wrist. She pulled on the cuffs a little when Shaw let go, testing the limits. It would be easy enough to undo them herself if she needed to and she had enough slack that it wasn't nearly as constraining as it usually was for Shaw. But it was still a little unnerving.

Shaw watched her, expressionless but attentive, and not for the first time Root wished she knew what it was Shaw thought about when she looked at her in these moments.

“Can you hear her?” Shaw asked. “The Machine, is she talking to you right now?”

Root shook her head, wrists still shifting and pulling at the bonds experimentally. “She respects our privacy when we're together like this. Unless there’s an emergency.” Root didn't mind Her watching over every part of her life, but neither of them were sure where Shaw stood on the matter and that was enough to make Her maintain a respectful distance.

“But she'd answer if you asked something?”

Shaw was full of strange questions tonight. “She would.”

“Ask her if you're safe right now.”

Root frowned and opened her mouth to insist that _obviously_ she knew she was safe, but Shaw shook her head.

“One of the reasons some people like this stuff--” She gestured towards Root's bound hands with her chin. “--is it makes them feel safe. Not the only reason, but if you’re not feeling it right now then maybe we should stop and I'll just bang your brains out like usual.”

Root knew all that already, of course, and couldn't help but feel a little irritated that Shaw would think she didn't. But then the Machine was jumping in, telling her the odds of anything bad happening to her here. The odds of Shaw ever willingly allowing anything bad to happen to her.

Tension she hadn't realized was there drained out of her, and she relaxed back onto the pillows. Shaw nodded to herself, satisfied.

“You safeword, you say stop, I stop, okay?”

“This really isn't my first rodeo, sweetie.”

Shaw just leveled a flat stare at her.

Root relented. “Okay, Sameen.”

A tiny smile pulled at the edge of Shaw's mouth and then she kissed her, sucking on her bottom lip and then pressing their lips together, hard. Root tried to sink her hands into Shaw's hair the way she normally would, but the cuffs stopped her short. She wrapped her fingers around the chain, frustrated.

Shaw glanced up and chuckled.

“Hands to yourself.”

“Don't seem to have much choice at the moment.”

“Exactly. So relax.”

Shaw reached up and ran her fingers down Root's arms, over her shoulders. She trailed a feather-light path over her breasts and then around to ghost along her sides. Root shivered and breathed in shakily. It almost tickled and she couldn't help but squirm a little.

Shaw halted her path downwards when she reached her waist and then started back up again, hands wandering lazily across Root's stomach. Root's muscles tensed in the wake of her touch, her whole body shivering. Everywhere Shaw's fingers caressed her skin felt over-stimulated, exposed.

She tugged on the cuffs--wanting to put her hands over Shaw's, get her to dig her fingers in--but Shaw didn't seem to have any interest in anything but the lightest of touches as she started the pattern all over again.

The third time Shaw's fingers glided along her sides, her body arched up off the bed of it's own accord, a slight gasp escaping her mouth without her permission.

All of it felt good, incredibly good, but also incredibly intense. Her hands tightened their grip on the chain, twisting back and forth. She was suddenly aware of just how much of an effect Shaw's attentions were having on her, how her entire body felt hot and coiled tight under Shaw's touch. She shifted restlessly against the sheets, bending one knee up to try and draw Shaw's focus to where she suddenly desperately needed it.

“Shaw…” Her name came out as a desperate plea and she quickly closed her mouth, trying to maintain some semblance of control over herself.

“Relax.”

But it was impossible to relax when Shaw's voice was a throaty murmur and one of her hands was teasing its way down Root's thigh.

Shaw shifted her weight on the bed and for a brief, horrifying second Root thought she was going to get up and leave her there, but Shaw only moved to hover over her and then kneel between her legs when Root let them fall open for her.

In the hours leading up to the CIA safe house, Root had spent a lot of time imagining what Shaw would be like in bed (how she'd like it when Root got rough, and when she could get rough with her in return), but she'd never considered just how much Shaw would enjoy the build up, the intimate dance of lips and fingers brushing over skin that made the journey almost more satisfying than the conclusion. And before Shaw, she'd never realized how much she could enjoy it herself.

Shaw put her palms on Root's legs, let her thumbs draw circles along the soft skin on the inside of her thighs.

“Well, the evidence suggests you're enjoying yourself.” Shaw looked a bit smug when she raised her head to meet Root's eyes. “Wanna weigh in on that?”

“Keep going.” She wanted Shaw's mouth on her an hour ago.

Shaw didn't move or look away.

“I'm fine, Shaw.”

Shaw hesitated for another second and Root lost her fragile grip on her composure.

“Sameen. Please?”

That seemed to finally convince Shaw. She lowered her head and pressed a soft kiss to the inside of one of Root's thighs, catching a tiny bit of skin between her teeth to nip. She stayed there for a while, devoting her full attention to the inside of one thigh and then the other until Root was writhing around her.

Shaw's hair was soft where it fell across Root's legs and she longed to wrap her hands in it, use it to pull Shaw to where she wanted her, but instead she had to be content with straining against the cuffs, letting Shaw take her time.

Her hips jerked when Shaw’s tongue finally found her, and she bit back a moan. Shaw’s arm came up to press down on her hips, hold her still, but she still only teased Root with brief touches.

They hadn't established any rules of what Root was or wasn't allowed to do, so she had no problem hooking her leg around Shaw, trying to draw her in closer. Shaw's hand wrapped around her leg from below, fingers biting into her skin with bruising force. Shaw gave up on the exquisite torment she'd been inflicting on her, and her mouth moved with more purpose, tongue and teeth applying pressure in all the right places.

Root was so caught up in the dual sensations of Shaw's tongue between her legs and the metal links pressing into her palms that her first orgasm took her almost by surprise, left her hands slack on the chain as she tried to catch her breath. She'd barely had time to recover before Shaw's mouth was back on her. A single finger teased at her before sliding inside. Shaw tested her with a few firm thrusts and then added a second finger. Root's eyes fluttered shut as her head fell back on the pillow.

What was it about sex with Shaw that felt so distinct from any of her previous partners? Right from the first time, she'd been acutely aware of the difference; before Shaw, sex had been about her body reacting to stimulus, and sure that was partly based on her attraction to the other person, but it still felt very distant, impersonal. Knowing that it was Shaw's fingers curling inside her felt like so much more.

Shaw sped up, fingers thrusting and curling inside her, her mouth hot and persistent against her. Root squeezed her with her leg, pulled on the cuffs harder as her body gave itself over to Shaw.

Shaw didn't pull out or slow down when the second orgasm rolled through her, and Root gasped and struggled in glorious abandon. She made a small noise of protest when Shaw's mouth left her, but then Shaw leaned forward over her and braced herself for better leverage to drive her fingers into her faster and harder.

Shaw’s eyes were locked on her own, her breath coming out in hot pants against Root's lips. She looked so wonderful in moments like these, completely open in a way Root had never seen her outside of sex.

“Let go.”

At first she thought Shaw was talking about her death grip on the chain, but the way she was staring Root straight in the eyes said otherwise. Her body was already tuned into every movement Shaw made, lost in a sea of physical sensations, but her mind….

After spending so much of her life commanding an exacting and precise control over herself, the idea of letting go of even a fraction of that was unfathomable. But Shaw was looking right at her, the quiet patience in her eyes at odds with the rapid movements of her fingers.

“Root. It's okay. Let go.” The slightest hint of a smile twitched across Shaw's lips.

And then, just for that moment, she did. All her worries and pretenses fled and she sank fully into her own body: the press of Shaw's sticky skin against hers, Shaw's fingers moving so deeply and intimately inside her, Shaw's mouth claiming her own in a brief, frantic kiss.

The only conscious feeling that remained was that right here, right now she was safe.

When she came a few seconds later it was unbelievably intense, leaving her trembling and limp. She barely even registered that Shaw had her hand down between her own legs, fingers working rapidly to drive herself over the edge after Root.

Root still hadn't fully recovered when Shaw sprawled out on the bed next to her. They both lay there for a good five minutes, silence punctuated only by their uneven breaths.

The fog cleared from Root's mind, and she became keenly aware of her trapped wrists. The warmth and safety from minutes before fled her, and she fumbled at the cuffs, feeling both confined and exposed. 

Shaw sat up immediately and hurried to help her, stilling Root's hands enough so she could release her. When Root brought her arms back down there were red imprints from the chain links across her palms.

“Okay?” Shaw had retreated a few inches and was watching her, toying with the cuffs.

Root wasn't quite sure how to answer that.

She turned away to sit on the edge of the bed and started gathering up her clothes from the floor.

“Root?” There was perhaps the tiniest thread of concern in Shaw's voice.

She looked back at her over her shoulder and smiled. “I'm fine, Shaw.” It wasn't unusual for one or the other of them to take off right after, but lately that hadn't happened as much.

Shaw nodded but didn't look like she quite believed her. She stayed silent on the bed while Root got dressed.

“I need to get back to work.” It was a lame excuse, but also unfortunately true at the moment.

“You could use my shower before you go. If you wanted.”

“There's one at the safe house, and I have a change of clothes there.”

She badly needed to go somewhere else, process all the conflicting thoughts churning inside her.

“Did you...?” Shaw broke off.

Root smiled at her again, trying to make it reassuring. “Yes, Shaw. I definitely enjoyed that."

Which was the whole problem. Because trusting any person that much--with much more than just her body--was unprecedented, a perilous uncharted territory. And right now there were too many what ifs and unknowns looming in their lives.

“Good. But, uh, you know we don't need to do it again if you don't want, right?”

“I think...not right away. But…” It was still too fresh in her mind to fully analyze, but some small part of her knew she wanted that feeling again, that moment where everything had gone away and she'd been safe under Shaw's touch. “Not right away, but definitely worth revisiting some day.”

Shaw nodded, something like relief on her face for the briefest moment. Had she really been that worried about her?

Root made herself stay another few minutes, just long enough to make sure Shaw understood that she was okay, and then hurried to catch a subway back to the safe house.

She sat at the far end of a near-empty subway car--her body still tingling and wonderfully sore--and ran her fingertips across the fading red marks on her palms.

The Machine played a tentative query in her ear, bringing a smile to her lips.

“Yes, I did have a lovely evening, thank you. It was….” How to explain it to Her? “It's not a perfect analogy, but maybe like the first time you give someone new permissions to access some part of your code? You let them see the underpinnings of your inner workings, how all the bits and pieces fit together. It gives them a certain amount of power over you, and even though you trust them it's still….”

‘Risky’ wasn't the right word, and neither ‘new’ nor ‘different’ felt strong enough.

She chewed her lip in thought. “I don't have much experience with it.”

None when it came to humans.

“I do trust her, you know. But it's been so long since I trusted another person. Not sure I ever really trusted anyone fully--” She smiled. “--except you, of course.”

The Machine switched over to Root's music, slowly bringing in hints of Shaw's after a few measures, the melodies twining together and complementing each other.

“I know.” But the reminder was nice. “I just need to sort things out in my head a little. Human minds and emotions are so aggravating to manage. Buggy and unoptimized.”

The Machine paused Her music long enough to ask another question.

“No. Of course not.” Didn't She know by now that Root never wanted Her to leave her alone? She couldn't imagine how awful the silence would be. Taking time to sort things out in her head absolutely included Her; She basically _was_ in Root's head by default now and that's where She needed to stay.

“Can you remind me in an hour or two to text Shaw? Something that'll make her roll her eyes and sigh. Maybe a line about being all tied up in my work.” That should put to bed any remaining worries.

“Thank you. Now, want to catch me up on what I missed? What’s the team been up to while I was gone? Did they actually manage to get _anything_ done on their own?”

She closed her eyes to listen to Her and let herself dwell in the sound of Her in her ear and the echo of Shaw's touch on her skin.


	10. Concord

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A series of vignettes (primarily about Shoot) from Reese's pov taking place over the course of STC.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd been working on this chapter for quite some time now, writing it in little parts. I've had writer's block and have been stressed out from life and it's not my best writing, but there's some parts I think turned out well.
> 
> Chapters referenced are: 6, 9, 18, 25, 31, 32, 37, 41
> 
> A bunch of others are mentioned in passing.
> 
> Rated T. No smut here.

“I'm sleeping with Root.”

Ever since Shaw had chosen to impart that unfortunate bit of knowledge, Reese found himself watching them from time to time, wondering what, exactly, it was that Shaw got out of all this. Well, besides the obvious, which wasn't something he intended to think about in any detail.

It wasn't any of his business (and he knew Shaw could more than take care of herself. Probably. So maybe Root had gotten the drop on her once. Twice. Shaw was clearly in control of the situation now. Clearly), but he couldn't help having the tiniest bit of curiosity. It was damn near impossible to get a read on Shaw, and Root, well, who knew if what showed on her face was anything approaching the truth.

He worked a couple missions with Root, enough to trust her not to shoot him in the back, but he never felt that he'd really worked side by side with the actual person behind all those mocking smiles and cruel quips. Until Washington D.C.

He felt a stab of cold terror when Shaw fell in the woods as they ran away from the school building where they'd left what was left of Roger McCourt. With Carter gone and Finch missing, Shaw was close to the only thing he had left in the world and he wasn't going to lose her, too.

And then Root appeared, pulling up out of nowhere in a black suv, her face as frantic as he'd ever seen it, eyes fixed on Shaw. He tried not to listen to the quiet words Root exchanged with Shaw in the backseat as he drove them towards the address Root had given him. They fell silent a few minutes into the drive and he glanced in the rearview mirror to see Root cradling Shaw against herself. Her eyes, when they met his in the mirror, were dark and feral.

“Keep your eyes on the road, John.”

The doctor that the Machine directed them to wasn't anyone Reese had seen before. He stood awkwardly outside the door with Shaw limp in his arms while Root spoke softly to the man. After a few tense minutes she looked back over her shoulder and beckoned him to follow them inside.

Since it was the doctor's house and not a clinic, it wasn't the ideal place for operating, but they couldn't afford to be picky. Shaw kept drifting in and out of consciousness. Root hovered, alternating between soft, low words to Shaw and menacing, suspicious glares at the poor doctor.

The doctor kept throwing pleading looks at Reese until he finally came over and drew Root away under the pretense of needing to talk to her.

“Are we being followed?” Reese asked, quietly enough that they wouldn't be heard.

“They're looking for us, but they don't have anything to go on yet.” Root glanced back towards the table where the doctor was working on Shaw. “But we'll need to move as soon as we can.”

“And this doctor? Is he going to stay quiet after we leave?” Asking a complete stranger to help them cover up the murder of a congressman didn't seem wise.

“She says he will, and I'm not allowed to kill him. Unless he hurts Shaw.”

“The Machine would be okay with you killing him then?”

“No, She wouldn't be.” She turned away and went back to hover over the doctor again.

It was over an hour before the doctor decided that Shaw could be moved and they left as quickly as they could. Reese led the way back out into the night, Root following him with Shaw unconscious in her arms. It was obvious she wasn't used to carrying people by the awkward way she shifted her grip and staggered a bit. He'd offered to carry Shaw, but Root had insisted.

“Are you up to driving?” she asked as he unlocked the car. She wasn’t looking at him at all, and instead focused on staring down at Shaw. The look on her face made him a bit uncomfortable.

“I'm fine--” He opened the back door for her. “--but they’re going to be looking for us all over.” Maybe they should drive further south until this blew over.

“She'll give us directions to get around the search, but we're going to have to be quick. So if you're tired….” She eased Shaw down across the backseat. Whatever the doctor had given Shaw was supposed to keep her knocked out for the duration of the drive.

“I'm fine. Let's get moving.”

He wasn't surprised that Root chose to stay in the back, curled around Shaw like a child with a stuffed toy. The first hour or two of the drive the silence was only broken by Root's precise directions. Once they were clear of the pursuit and out on the highway, it started raining, the hard drumming of drops echoing through the car.

A glance in the mirror showed him that Root was still wrapped around Shaw, her head bent over her so her hair fell around both of them.

“The doctor said she'll be okay.” He wasn't sure why he felt the need to comfort her, a woman he'd once sworn to never let near any of them again.

“I know that.”

Well, he couldn't give comfort where it wasn't wanted.

There was only the sound of the rain for a while.

“John?”

He looked up towards the mirror again. Root hadn't budged.

“Thank you.”

They drove the rest of the way in silence.

 

* * *

 

He thought he knew how Root felt about Shaw (since she wasn't exactly trying to hide it), but he still didn't know where Shaw stood on things.

And then Vigilance just had to go and kidnap Root. Or try to anyway.

He wasn't quite sure how he’d expected Shaw to react, but the slight stiffness in her posture, and the brusque way she gave orders told him this was very important to her. That Root being okay was very important to her.

And once they had Root back safely at the library he realized that maybe the signs had been there all along, but he hadn't known how to look for them.

“Do you fling yourself in front of bullets on purpose?” Shaw made a noise of disapproval as she unwound the makeshift cloth bandage from around Root's arm.

“Idiotic little desk jockeys with terrible passwords are hardly worth taking a bullet for.” Root bit her lip when Shaw poked at the deep graze on her arm.

“Bullets just magically veer off course to hit you then?”

“Well, you should know. You _did_ shoot me once.” She sucked in a breath as Shaw wiped the area clean.

“This needs stitches. Probably gonna hurt a lot.” Shaw turned to him. “Cabinet in the bathroom, blue box, should be some painkillers we can use.”

Reese tried not to sulk on his way to the bathroom. _He_ never got painkillers when Shaw was stitching him up. When he returned, he paused for a second at the edge of the stacks. Root was saying something to Shaw, too soft for him to hear, but he could see Shaw's lips turn up into the slightest of smiles before she shook her head and rolled her eyes.

He was about to step out of the stacks when Shaw spoke again.

“Next time you decide to take on an entire terrorist cell yourself, have a better escape route planned. Or take backup.”

“Wasn't time for either. I had to get Vigilance away from the number.”

“Since when do you care about the numbers?” Shaw was still fussing with cleaning Root's arm off, her head bent down over the task.

“The Machine cares.”

“You can't help her if you get yourself killed, you know.”

Reese didn't think he'd heard Shaw call the Machine ‘her’ before. Just what had it said to her?

“Worried about me, Shaw?” Root’s tone may have been teasing but the small smile she had on seemed a bit sad.

Shaw looked up and spotted him.

“Bring that over here, Reese.” She sounded relieved for the interruption.

He wasn't surprised when later that night, after the meeting with Zoe, Shaw invited Root to leave with her. He still didn't completely understand _why_ Shaw cared, but maybe he didn't need to.

 

* * *

 

He didn't completely understand why _he_ cared either, and definitely not how much until Jeremy Lambert showed up offering to trade Finch for Root. The rush of anger he felt came as something of a surprise to him. He knew he'd have been royally pissed if they'd asked for Shaw, but Root? When had that happened?

And Shaw…. It wasn't any one specific thing he could place his finger on, but, even after the dust had settled, things between her and Root felt different, like Shaw's attention had shifted slightly.

He didn't have much time to observe their new dynamic though, not when they were all running around trying to prepare for Samaritan coming online, but he did get to witness the three weeks of Shaw sulking (and he really couldn't think of another word for it) when Root didn't show up after they started their lives in their new identities.

And when Root finally did reappear, it was as if a tiny thread of tension he hadn't previously noticed vanished from Shaw.

He found the two of them completely at ease in the subway the night after Root returned. Shaw was sitting at the table, fastidiously cleaning a gun, and Root was across from her typing away on a laptop and chewing on her bottom lip. They weren't touching or interacting in any way, but there was a quiet coexistence stretching between them that he'd never seen (or perhaps never noticed) before.

He'd had to think about both women a lot during his short stay with Finch, who had so deeply disapproved of their current team structure. Shaw he still believed to be volatile and causally violent, and Root he'd alternated between referring to as a dangerous adversary and someone to be pitied. None of these assessments lined up with Reese's perceptions of either women (except the dangerous part, because they were both quite dangerous) and he'd felt slightly uncomfortable the whole time.

Shaw had spent a lot of time pacing up and down the subway platform the last three weeks. It was nice to see her looking so calm and relaxed now. And Root paused from her work every so often to look up at Shaw for a long moment before diving back in.

“You gonna skulk there all night or are you going to come in?”

Shaw's words startled him, and he came out of the shadows near the entrance to join them. Root even smiled at him.

It felt strangely like coming home at the end of a long day.

 

* * *

 

“You going to rebandage her arm?” Reese asked as Shaw drove them through the city.

“Hersh knows how to deal with bullet wounds.”

Root was passed out across the back seat, her wounded arm curled against her chest protectively. Shaw had been annoyed that she'd gotten shot (twice!), run off from the shoot out at the hotel, and had to be rescued by Hersh of all people instead of calling them for backup, and Reese couldn't disagree. That was Shaw's battle to fight, though, both because she was in charge and because Root was her...well, whatever term they were using for it.

“Think we can trust him?”

“Hersh follows Control's orders. Control I don't really trust, but Samaritan has her in a bad position. At this point the Machine probably has the best idea of what's going on.” Shaw pulled the car up to the curb outside her building. It was her new place that Reese had never been to before.

“Front door of my place is in a dead zone,” Shaw said. “Probably the Machine’s doing. So getting her in won’t be a problem.”

“What about the car?”

“Can you ditch it somewhere?”

It seemed unfair that he was now responsible for getting rid of the car Shaw had stolen, but he'd rather deal with that than their unconscious passenger.

“I know just the place.”

When he opened the door to the backseat, Root looked completely knocked out. How much codeine had Shaw given her?

“We’re going to have to carry her in.” He really didn't want to be the one to do that, but he would if he had to. He wasn't sure how awkward all this was for Shaw.

“Yeah.” Shaw fished her keys out and threw them to him. “Get the doors.”

Apparently not _that_ awkward.

He unlocked and opened the door to the building and turned to watch Shaw struggling to pull Root's long limbs out of the car without dropping her. Maybe he should have helped.

But Shaw managed on her own, scooping Root up against her chest like she weighed nothing. Root must have been at least a little awake still because she squirmed a bit, latched on to Shaw's shirt with one hand, and smushed her face against her. It was oddly endearing, as was Shaw's bewildered expression. Shaw looked down at Root like she couldn't figure out how she'd ended up there with her, but she didn't look upset. Puzzled, maybe, and...determined?

He didn't know how to describe it, but he knew exactly what it meant. He wondered if Shaw knew yet, or Root.

When it became clear that Shaw was going to stand there staring half the night if he didn't intervene, he cleared his throat. Shaw looked up at him, and then back down at Root, and then back up at him. If she'd been anyone else he'd have expected her to look embarrassed. He didn't mention any of it though, just helped her get Root upstairs. He also didn't mention that she carried Root into her room rather than dumping her on the couch.

It wasn't any of his business, but it made him feel a little warm inside. Maybe if the two of them were finding something together in the middle of all this mess it wasn't impossible for someone else to do the same.

 

* * *

 

He was puzzled by Root setting up a room for herself in the subway. She still seemed to stay at Shaw's most of the time, but the timing (so soon after the stoned-on-a-table incident) was a bit suspicious.

His one and only attempt to bring it up with Shaw led to him getting hit in the face with a chew-toy.

And then there was the whole business with Tomas. He'd thought he kinda knew where Root and Shaw stood with each other, but judging by how Root reacted to the whole thing maybe he'd been wrong.

He asked Zoe about it later (she was pretty much the only person he could ask), but she only laughed at him. Unfair, considering the amount of semi-nosy text messages they exchanged about the situation.

But Tomas left and Shaw and Root both stayed and, if anything, they both acted more at ease around each other, like puzzle pieces that had finally snapped into place.

And it was no secret that Root was holed up in Shaw's place for the two weeks after their raid on the Samaritan base, so maybe everything was okay.

Which, of course, was right before everything went to hell.

 

* * *

 

He didn't know if he'd ever seen anyone in the state Root was in while she watched the doctor try to save Shaw's life. It was like Washington all over again, but a thousand times worse.

Her face was ghost-pale (the smears of dried blood across her cheek making a vivid contrast), but her eyes were hard and cold. Empty. And yet her hands were shaking, fingernails digging into her own arms hard enough to leave marks.

He wanted to do something (for both of them, though Shaw's wounds were far beyond his skills), but until the doctor was through there was nothing to be done but wait and hope. The look in Root's eyes promised someone was going to pay for this, and he had a sinking suspicion that was going to become his problem quite soon.

He couldn't help but feel that he should have been the one lying there full of bullets. He didn't have anyone the way Root and Shaw had each other, and Shaw was, well, she was almost like a little sister and what sort of older sibling would let their little sister take a bullet for them?

The least he could do was make sure Root was alive and safe when Shaw woke up.

Root didn't make that part easy, of course. He'd seen some really bad shit in the military, but the scene he walked into while tracking Root down after the tasing incident was...it was beyond bad. He didn't think he'd have any trouble torturing a Samaritan agent right then with Shaw still unconscious and badly hurt back in the safe house, but Root had gone well past what he ever would have.

It was a bit chilling to realize that this was part of how Root’s feelings manifested themselves. It was definitely the sappy smiles, and the small touches, and that glow she got around Shaw, but it was also this: an uncontrollable, burning fury that consumed anything that dared to threaten someone she loved. Especially anything that threatened Shaw.

She acted so childlike sometimes that he forgot what she was really capable of. But Shaw never forgot; he was sure of that. He thought Shaw might know Root better than she knew herself. About some things anyway. And vis versa. Maybe that was the real reason they worked so well together, what they both got out of it: understanding. And acceptance.

Having that epiphany while standing over the bloody remains of Root's victim was probably not the best timing, but oh well.

He felt a rush of guilt when Shaw contacted him. He'd wanted to keep Root safe for her, but he hadn't even managed that. The best he could do now was stop Root before she got herself killed.

But damn was it good to hear Shaw’s voice again.

By some miracle he actually caught up with Root. She stood in the middle of the sidewalk, her back to him and her arms wrapped around herself, her whole body shaking like she was freezing.

Even after he knocked her out, he had to carry her all the way back to the car he'd stolen. She looked worse than when he'd last seen her. There was even more blood on her now, partially from her torture session, but also from the nasty cut on her side that she'd managed to reopen somewhere along the way. He did his best to bandage it up in the car before he drove back.

Shaw was asleep when he carried Root in, and he decided not to wake her. She couldn't do much until Root woke up anyway. He left Root cuffed to the bed in the corner and went downstairs to find some clean clothes and maybe, finally, take a nap.

Everything was still awful, but at least now there was a chance it could be okay again in the future.

It was a relief when Shaw woke up again. He'd spoken to her over the comm earlier, but it wasn't the same as seeing her awake and okay. And while making her food didn't even come close to the enormity of what he felt he owed her, it was still a thing he could do. And it was good to feel useful.

“Where'd you get the food?” Shaw asked as she poked at it suspiciously with her fork.

“Fusco ran to the store before he took off for the night.” He knew he was hovering, but he felt like he should be there if she needed anything else.

On the bed in the corner of the room, Root was still unconscious.

“Fusco said you two were fighting before she took off.” Shaw was stuffing food in her mouth now. “She try to enlist you on that little stunt she pulled?”

“She asked me to help her track down Martine. When I told her there was no easy way of doing that, she said we could level every Samaritan building in the area until we found her.”

She'd made it sound so rational the way she'd suggested it, but there had been something about her slight smile that had set off alarm bells in his head. He could still remember what it had been like after Carter. He had known exactly what her expression foretold.

He should have knocked her out right then and there.

“Thanks for handling that.” Shaw was focused on her food in a way that told him not to make a big deal out of this.

“Of course.”

Shaw paused, fork halfway to her mouth. She stared at it blankly for a moment. “What do I…” She never looked up from the fork. “I'm not really the person for this type of situation.”

He looked back over again at where Root was sleeping peacefully.

“I don't think anyone is.” He wouldn't have known what to say to her, either. “But you're probably the closest thing there is for her.”

Shaw turned her head to look at Root as well.

“Thanks for the food,” she said after a while.

She held the mostly-empty plate out to him. He knew a dismissal when he heard one, so he took the plate and left. Shaw was still watching Root sleep when he shut the door.

 

* * *

 

It would be wrong to say things went back to normal, since normal wasn't something that happened to them, but it did quiet down for a bit. Shaw slowly got better and Root, well, some things took more time.

The therapy sessions that had started out being an annoyance to him had turned into something he almost looked forward to. An hour once a week where he could talk, if not freely, then at least more openly than he was used to.

He knew that there was almost no chance of ever convincing Root to talk to a psychologist, and even less chance of it helping her since she'd lie through her teeth.

But maybe even just talking at all would help a little. So he tried to be there to listen. For Shaw, too, even though she was far less likely than Root to ever open up to him. Probably. It was hard to tell with them.

They'd all been hurt in different ways by that day in the stock exchange, but they were all still there to recover together.

 

* * *

 

It was weird having Root hanging around his hospital room the entire time he was recovering from the fun hypothermia incident.

“You don't have to stay here. I'm perfectly capable of being bed-ridden without supervision.”

Root stopped typing momentarily to give him a scornful look over the top of her laptop. Even though she only left to sleep (at a nearby hotel, and judging by the pronounced dark circles under her eyes he suspected she wasn't actually sleeping) she wasn't a particularly entertaining visitor. She'd been glued to her laptop the entire time, silent except for the click of the keys and occasional angry muttering.

It was nice of her to stay, but he wasn't sure _why_ she did. Maybe Shaw had asked her to? Or there was a threat from Samaritan they weren't telling him about?

The door swung open and Shaw wandered in, kicking the door shut behind her with enough force that he knew a nurse would come by to scold them soon.

“How much longer are you stuck here?” she asked in lieu of a greeting.

Root had briefly looked up when she came in, but already was bent back over her laptop.

“At least a few more days.” He was feeling somewhat better, but still pretty awful.

“Well, hurry up already. It's a long drive.” She sprawled out in the chair on the other side of the bed from where Root was and propped her feet up on his clean sheets.

“You don't have to come visit.” She’d only shown up a few times, but there wasn't much need for her to have come at all.

“Got nothing better to do.” Shaw slouched in her chair and started unwrapping a power bar.

He spoke Shaw-body-language well enough by now to get that she didn't want to admit out loud that she'd wanted to come see him. Fine by him. He could appreciate the gesture for what it was without openly acknowledging it.

He turned to look at Root, once again wondering why she was there.

“I don't like hospitals.”

Root didn't look up when she spoke.

“Being alone in them...” She paused her typing for a second. “They're not good places to be alone in.”

None of them said anything else for a bit. Root focused on her laptop, and Shaw watched her with an expression he usually only saw when she was trying to figure out some puzzle on a mission.

“It was good you got to close that case,” Shaw said finally. She was fidgeting with the now-empty power bar wrapper.

“Yeah.”

“I wish I'd gotten to meet her.” Root finally shut her laptop and placed it on the floor. She raised an eyebrow when she saw them both looking at her. “Detective Carter. That's who you were both not talking about right?”

The mental image of Carter and Root meeting broke his brain a bit. What would they have made of each other?

“What was she like?”

Couldn't the Machine tell her those sorts of things? He exchanged a look with Shaw.

“She was…” He couldn't think of words sufficient to describe Carter. “She was the best of us.”

“Much better than Reese.” Shaw grinned for a fleeting second and then chucked the crumpled up wrapper at Reese so it bounced off his still-raw cheek. “Probably would have arrested you, though.”

Root smiled as if she had her own opinion on how that would have gone and then her expression got more serious again. “She misses her, too.”

It took him a second to figure out what she meant, and when he did he wasn’t sure what to make of it. What did it mean for an AI to miss someone?

Root didn't leave until he was discharged.

 

* * *

 

“I don't get it. I gave her a key months ago.”

Shaw wasn't drunk, but she'd definitely loosened up a tiny bit after a large quantity of expensive beer. Reese, however, wasn't sure he could ever have enough beer to deal with Shaw talking to him about her...relationship troubles. Not that they were real troubles; more like confusions.

“And every single time she acts like she's an intruder or something.”

“Hmmm.” It seemed like a safe response.

“What do people usually do in these...situations?”

Reese tried to smile reassuringly, aware that it probably came out as a grimace. Shaw groaned.

“Must be losing my mind, asking you of all people for advice.”

“Hey!”

Shaw smirked at him.

He wracked his brain, trying to think of something that would prove he wasn't a total failure at interpersonal relationships.

“Maybe, uh, maybe she likes it when you tell her she can stay. Maybe she likes hearing that.” It sounded lame, but it was the only thing he could come up with.

Shaw didn't mock him like he expected, instead she looked thoughtful.

“Yeah, maybe,” she said after a few minutes. She stood up from their table. “Next round is on me. What're you having?”

 

* * *

 

He was relieved when Shaw finally dragged Root after her out onto the dance floor at the end of the damn wedding. Root was pretty good at hiding things, but he'd been painfully aware of how badly she’d wanted Shaw to ask her. And there was something that looked so right about the two of them dancing together (even if Root was a bit stiff). They were different in moments like these.

Peaceful.

It wasn't a word he associated with either of them, but it was one that came to mind more and more when he saw them together.

“John, don't stare.” Zoe looked amused.

“I'm not.” He had been. “It's just…” He felt silly saying it. “I'm glad. For them.”

“Why John, how sentimental of you,” Zoe teased.

He grimaced.

“I'm glad for them, too,” Zoe said. “It's been a couple rough years for all of you. It's nice to see something positive come out of this mess.”

When he glanced back at them, Root had finally loosened up a little and was smiling, her whole face shining. Shaw's expression wasn't nearly as easy to read, but she was focused enough on Root that she hadn't noticed him and Zoe watching. Definitely unusual for her.

“Let's give them some privacy,” Zoe said leading him away from the dance floor.

“We're in the middle of a crowded room.” He didn't protest though and followed her away.

Later, when they found Shaw relaxing on a couch in front of the fire with Root curled up against her, neither of them said anything about it, but they did share a tiny smile.

 

* * *

 

He'd thought he understood how Shaw processed things, but he'd never seen her in anything like the state she was in when he found her in the hospital waiting for Root to get out of surgery. Anger and frustration were radiating off of her in waves, and every little emotion he let show on his face only made her angrier.

He sat next to her quietly, carefully, while they waited, and headed off Hersh before he could risk making things worse. He didn't follow her when she took off after the doctor let them know Root would be okay. He stayed, dealt with the doctor, helped Hersh handle keeping the situation under control. It was the only way he could find of helping, and it didn't feel like enough.

He didn't like how pale Root was as she lay unconscious in the hospital bed, nor how Shaw stared blankly at the wall, unmoving. It got better after Root woke up, but they both looked so tired. Not like lack-of-sleep tired. Completely, deeply exhausted by life.

He knew he didn't look much better.

Root had to stay in the hospital for a week before Shaw was willing to work on getting her discharged. He stayed with her during the days and Shaw took the nights.

“I don't need a babysitter, John.”

Root was still too pale and he hadn't seen her use her phone or the laptop that was powered off on the table by her bed.

“I don't like hospitals either.”

That actually got a tiny, genuine smile out of her.

The next morning when he came by, he opened the door to find Shaw lying on the bed half on top of Root, sound asleep. Root had been watching her sleep, but looked up when the door opened and shooed him out with the hand that wasn't resting gently on Shaw's head.

He waited until he shut the door again before he let himself smile.

 

* * *

 

And one last thing….

Everything was finally starting to hit a new normal, Reese thought as he climbed the stairs to his apartment. The new team members had mostly stopped getting on Shaw's nerves, Root was almost completely better now, and he'd finally found a way to quit his cover job so he could focus on his real job: taking orders from an AI who seemed to be going through a rebellious phase (clearly Root's fault).

They'd had a long day though. Claire had thrown a minor temper tantrum and Shaw had to be talked out of locking her in the subway car and leaving to get lunch. Honestly he'd been tempted to as well, but it was his turn this week to pretend to be the adult of the group. There was a chart to keep track of that.

He tossed his jacket on a chair in his apartment and sank down gratefully onto his couch. He was planning a nice, quiet evening in with no major crises or disturbances. Just him, his tv, and maybe some take out from the new restaurant down the block.

There was a tiny, sharp pain in his leg and he looked down.

A small tortoiseshell kitten with its claws firmly latched onto his leg looked back up at him and gave the tiniest little meow-beep he had ever heard.

“No,” he told the kitten. “No. Absolutely not.”

That was the moment when the second kitten crawled out from under the sofa.

Three more kittens and one very hassled mother cat later, Reese was ready to cry. Why didn't they stay still? Every time he put one kitten in the oversized cardboard box he'd found, two others jumped out and tottered away across the floor on their little kitten legs. And okay, that was kind of adorable, but what was he supposed to do? He couldn't watch all of them at once.

He decided to confront those responsible for this invasion immediately.

“Shaw?”

“Thought you were taking the night off?” Her voice sounded a little odd, but he was too upset right then to wonder why.

“Did you know that Root left a box of kittens in my apartment?”

“John, that's outrageous. Why would I ever do such a thing?” Root apparently still hadn't learned about private conversations.

“She found them on a mission,” Shaw cut in, ignoring Root's interruption. “We couldn't keep them because we've got Bear, so she said she was going to find a good home for them.”

“And I _did_. You should be honored, John. I wouldn't entrust kittens to just anyone.”

One of the kittens was climbing up the leg of his very expensive pants.

“Well, I can't take care of six cats! I can't even take care of one!”

“He's got a point there, Root. He can't even take care of himself.” Shaw sounded like she was holding back a laugh.

“Sorry, John. You'll have to figure out what to do with them on your own. Sameen and I are a bit otherwise occupied right now. Later!”

The line went dead as his brain caught up and he realized _why_ Shaw had sounded a bit odd. Why the hell had she answered his call then?

He sat down on the floor next to the box of cats. “I don't know anything about taking care of kittens,” he told them. The mother cat was determinedly washing a kitten with tuxedo markings who he definitely hadn't decided to name Cat-In-The-Suit.

His doorbell went off and when he returned a few minutes later it was with a package full of books on cat care and another box full of cat supplies. At least the Machine was helping him out here even if she was promoting his new unwanted role as cat owner.

Somehow his entire suit was already coated in cat hair. It had been less than an hour.

When Root dragged Shaw by for a visit (uninvited) a week later, the cat situation was, if not under control, somewhat settled.

“Cat ownership suits you,” Root pronounced. Primary Catsset, the mother cat (the Machine had chosen her name), had crawled into her lap immediately and was purring. That traitor.

“They _are_ pretty cute, Reese.” Shaw was letting little Dog attack one of her fingers (he'd expected Zoe to think of a dignified name for the kitten, but apparently she was still deeply amused by the fact their dog was named Bear).

“I'm not saying they're not, but I should have had _some_ choice in the matter.” Not that he would ever give up any of them now. How could he split up the tiny cat family that had adopted him? What if something happened to one of them? He wasn't a monster.

In his lap, The Mewchine (Root's very unfortunate naming choice that had made Shaw roll her eyes and groan) and Beretta (Shaw's choice and the only one he could get behind) were taking a tiny, fuzzy nap. The final two kittens, Suit (Cat-In-The-Suit had needed a nickname), and Fuzzco ( _definitely_ not Reese's choice) were playing in the box their very expensive cat bed had come in.

“You know, Fusco’s son, Lee, is an animal lover, and I heard he really misses watching Bear all the time,” Shaw said. Dog was now hanging from her hand by her sharp little teeth and trying to rip her arm open with her tiny claws, but Shaw didn't seem to mind.

“So?” Reese asked, suspiciously.

“Just sayin if you don't want them.…”

Reese scowled. “They're my cats. Fusco can't have them.” It was bad enough he'd let him name one.

Root looked suspiciously like she was trying to hide a smile. It was nice to see both of them looking so...content. The word peaceful came to mind again. Admittedly Shaw hadn't looked particularly peaceful when she'd taken down half a gang with only a tire iron yesterday, but she'd certainly looked like she was enjoying herself. And Root had definitely been enjoying watching her.

One of the kittens on his lap yawned and stretched and he petted it gently with one finger. He liked this new life they'd all made together. It was still dangerous and sometimes uncertain, but he felt like they all had found a home together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Despite my mixed feelings on this, naming a kitten Fuzzco may be the greatest idea I ever had. Also thank you to [winged_mammal](http://archiveofourown.org/users/winged_mammal/pseuds/winged_mammal) for helping me brainstorm cat names. 
> 
> The talented and wonderful Maarika did some [amazing art](https://themaarika.tumblr.com/post/168735518378/from-feedback-loops-by-asleepinawell) of the mayhem trio and their cats. Check it out!
> 
> I've been sort of working on the next shoot chapter. It'll happen eventually.


	11. Better Than Nice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place during chapter 41 when they're staying at the cabin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a pretty plotless, fluff chapter. The first half is a little angsty, but the rest is just fluff. A very nice reader gifted me a fantastic drawing of Root and I promised them some soft murder girlfriends from Shaw's pov and here you go.
> 
> Rated E. No real content warning.

Shaw had to lug Root around a lot in the weeks after she got out of the hospital. Root could walk on her own if necessary, but it still hurt her a lot and Shaw had chosen being a human taxi over watching her wince every time her still-healing wound pulled a little.

Root didn't make jokes or flirt or anything as Shaw carried her up the little path to the cabin Zoe was lending them. She’d been doing a lot less of that in general since she'd woken up to the silence left by the Machine's absence, and while Shaw would never admit she missed it, the quiet seriousness definitely felt off.

“Looks cozy,” Root said as Shaw carried her inside.

Cozy was right. The cabin was fairly small and screamed fake-rustic-for-rich-people, but the huge bed looked soft and the fireplace worked, so Shaw figured it would be fine.

She got Root settled on the bed before going back to get their bags out of the car.

“I feel too gross to be lying on the clean bed,” Root said when she came back. She was half-propped up on the pillows, staring a bit blankly at the cold fireplace.

“Need more painkillers?”

“No, I need to shower.” Root ran a hand through her hair, her fingers snagging in the tangles.

Shaw wanted to argue. Root still couldn't stand on her own for long and they'd just gotten out of the car from a long drive, but she also remembered that she'd insisted on the same thing right after she'd been hurt. Sometimes a little pain was worth it to feel clean again. But….

“Maybe you should wait a few more days.”

“Please?” Root sounded exhausted and Shaw sighed and gave in.

She fished around in their luggage until she found shampoo and other assorted shower items and went to check out the bathroom situation.

The bathroom was almost as big as the main room, boasting an enormous tub and a spacious shower with glass walls. Zoe had really gone all out for a place she didn't even use. The tub even had whirlpool jets in it which sounded amazing right then.

But Root shouldn't be taking a bath quite yet, and Shaw sincerely doubted that she could stand up long enough to shower properly. Root had gotten her a stool to sit on while showering when she'd been hurt, but she hadn't seen anything suitable in the tiny cabin and, well, there were other options now.

Root’s eyes went very wide when Shaw returned to the main room to get her.

“Is this my get well present?”

“You wish.”

“Looks like my wish came true.” There was the slightest hint of a smile on her lips now.

Shaw rolled her eyes. It had been easier to take her clothes off before she had to deal with hauling Root into the bathroom and getting her in the shower. She was just being practical. But it was a relief to hear one of Root’s lame attempts at flirting again.

“Think you can stand up on your own?”

Root tried to sit up and grimaced. “Give me a minute.”

Shaw went over to where she'd dumped their bags and fished around in her own. Root didn't say anything when she handed her a pill and a bottle of water.

She got Root into the bathroom with the minimum amount of pain she could manage to cause her and helped her undress. That sort of thing would have been weird to her once (outside of ripping each other's clothes off for fun purposes they didn't undress each other), but now it felt almost normal. Which was weird in itself.

There was still a bandage over the wound on Root's side (it could come off pretty soon, but not quite yet), but Shaw had come prepared and brought supplies to waterproof it for showers. Root stood quietly under her touch the entire time, not even batting her dumb eyelashes or anything.

These silences were frequent now and deeply unnerving to Shaw. The Machine's absence was a different type of wound, one that Shaw didn't know how to treat. It wasn't something she could stitch up, or bandage, or give her painkillers for.

She ran the shower until it was warm (but not too hot), and then helped Root under the spray. One of the last times they'd been in the shower together had been after the wedding mission and had _definitely_ been more fun. Everything had seemed okay that night, in balance. Probably the last night that had been true for.

Root’s face got a little paler when the water hit her and Shaw grabbed her by the hips and tried to reposition her so the water couldn't hit her hurt side as much.

“Okay?”

“Hurts a little, but the water feels good.” Root was trying very hard to smile, but her jaw was clenched.

Shaw tried to hurry the shower along so she could get Root back lying down and comfortable again. Seeing people in pain had never bothered her before, but…. It was like keeping Root from being in pain, keeping her okay was a responsibility that belonged to her now. Especially with the Machine gone. It sounded kinda sappy when she put it into words, but it was too important to blow off for that reason. She might not have a real job anymore with the numbers not coming in, but she still had a purpose. Something she took far more seriously than saving strangers.

She concentrated on keeping Root from falling over while she slowly washed her own hair, but she had to help her wash herself off since she couldn't bend over. That part was a little weird still. Touching her like that without it leading to sex was too familiar in a way she wasn't used to. She thought maybe she could get used to it, though. Eventually.

“Not yet,” Root said when she reached to turn the water off.

“You can barely stand.” She had her arm hooked around her from behind to keep her steady, Root's back pressed up against her front.

“Just another second. The water feels nice.”

Shaw sighed and wrapped her other arm around her to try and take some of her weight off her feet. The entire situation was bringing back memories of the time after the stock exchange when Root had done her best to help her shower. She hadn't been willing to have Root in the shower with her then; things had changed a lot.

She rested her forehead against Root's warm back, and shut her eyes for just a second. She still felt that bone-deep exhaustion she'd had since she’d waited for Root to wake up in her hospital room (probably long before that, but that was when she'd finally acknowledged it), but standing here like this made it recede just a tiny bit.

It didn't last long. Root didn't have enough energy to do much of anything without needing a long nap afterwards. Shaw could tell how much it frustrated her; neither of them enjoyed being out of commission like that. And while she never wanted to see Root in pain, maybe she selfishly enjoyed getting to take care of her a little. It made some part of her feel content, like she was doing something right.

She got Root tucked under the heavy, warm blankets on the bed before heading back to finish her own brief shower. Root was asleep again when she got out, but stirred when she climbed under the covers to join her.

“Sameen?” She didn't sound awake at all.

“Go back to sleep.”

Root fell silent again and Shaw started to relax as she warmed up under the blankets. It had been a long drive and tomorrow was soon enough to really look around the place and settle in.

“It's so quiet.”

She’d thought Root had fallen back asleep, but apparently not.

“We're kinda in the middle of nowhere. Don't worry, I'm sure there'll be some obnoxiously loud wildlife waking us up at terrible times.” Last time she'd had to camp out in the woods she'd seriously considered punching an owl.

“It's quiet everywhere now.”

She hadn't been talking about the cabin, Shaw realized. These were the moments when she still felt out of her depth, because the loss of the Machine was something she couldn't fix or replace. She didn't like problems without solutions.

She rolled over towards Root, careful not to do anything that might hurt her, but close enough that Root would be able to feel her next to her and hear her breathing. It wasn't a solution, but it was the best she could offer right now.

“Shaw?”

“Hmm?”

“Can we light a fire later?”

“Yeah. Why not.” She’d had Reese pack a bag of marshmallows for them after Zoe told her about the fireplace. It felt a little silly, but she suspected Root might enjoy it (and scorched, sugary goo was delicious, okay?).

She stiffened slightly when Root's hand crept over one of her own, and Root pulled back immediately. Shaw huffed out an annoyed breath and opened her eyes enough to hunt down Root's hand, reclaim it, and pull it back to her. Considering the fact they'd both had their hands all over each other uncountable times, there shouldn't have been any reason for this to be strange, but there was something about letting their fingers entwine that felt way more intimate than having her fingers deep inside Root during sex. Differently intimate.

She wasn't sure what to make of it, so she shut her eyes again. The gentle brush of Root's thumb over her hand lulled her back to sleep.

 

* * *

 

The melancholy silences never went away completely, but they lessened in frequency over the next few weeks. Root was back to teasing and flirting and, even if she still sometimes got quiet and stared off into space, Shaw could usually pull her out of it. Especially now that sex was back on the table.

Sunlight was flooding in through the curtains that Shaw had forgotten to close the night before (less ‘forgotten’ and more ‘been distracted by Root going down on her’), the brightness keeping her from drifting back off. Next to her, Root was still fully asleep. Even if she was much better she still was sleeping a ton as she healed, which was a relief for Shaw after all the months of watching her drive herself beyond exhaustion.

But on mornings like this all that seemed far away. Root was breathing gently, her hair spread out across the pillow in shiny waves, and her face soft with sleep. She looked so pretty like this (a description Shaw had begrudgingly allowed into her vocabulary just for Root), and less burdened with the weight of all the world's problems. Shaw felt the sudden inexplicable need to see her smile, something which was still a rarity these days (the genuine smiles anyway, where her whole face lit up).

She started out by kissing the side of Root's neck, softly at first, and then with tiny brushes of teeth and tongue. She wasn't too worried about leaving marks since Root loved that shit and also who would even see in the middle of the woods.

Root stirred a little when Shaw nipped lightly at her pulse point.

“Sammmhzh?”

It was probably supposed to be her name, but Root wasn't awake enough to deal with proper enunciation yet. Fortunately, Shaw didn't need her to be.

“Thought you might need a hand waking up,” Shaw murmured into the side of her neck.

“Mmmm.” Root sounded like she definitely approved.

Shaw shoved the blankets down to Root's waist and slid one hand up the oversized shirt she'd worn to bed. Root’s skin was warm to the touch and the way she arched up into Shaw's hand was rather satisfying. Shaw set to work gently massaging her breasts, going slowly until Root was more awake and pawing at her.

She chuckled and shoved the blankets fully off them so she could slide on top of Root (careful to avoid putting her weight too near Root's almost-healed injury) and claim her mouth. Root moaned into her mouth, happy and enthusiastic.

Root obligingly shifted to help Shaw pull her shirt off and then gasped a little when Shaw slid down to get her mouth on one of her breasts. Shaw smirked against her at the small whine she pulled from her, but the moment was ruined by Root smacking her in the head while trying to thread her hand into her hair. Apparently she was still not at full functionality this morning.

“Gonna go down on you now.” She figured fair warning was in order since Root was still a bit muddled from sleep.

“Sounds nice.” Shaw could hear the smile in her words.

“Think I can do better than just ‘nice’.” She had a reputation to maintain here.

She made her way further down Root's body, kissing and licking as she went. Root's hand was still tangled in her hair, tugging gently from time to time. The sunlight from the windows was streaming across both of them and everything was warm and hazy and relaxed. Root's legs fell open for her and she settled between them, nudging at the inside of her thigh with her nose before biting down gently. Root shivered under her and her fingers tightened in her hair.

“Sameen?” She sounded more awake now.

Shaw disengaged her mouth from Root's thigh. “Yeah?”

“Go slow?” It was pretty rare for Root to ask for that, and if it had been anyone else Shaw would have thought she sounded embarrassed.

She moved up a tiny bit to prop her chin up on one of Root's hip bones so she could look up at her. Root's face was flushed and sleepy and just about the best thing Shaw had ever seen. Her fingers were still threaded into Shaw's hair, scratching lightly at her scalp.

“Yeah, Root, I can do that.”

Root smiled down at her, all goopy and sweet and Shaw had no choice but to escape it by burying her face between Root's legs.

She took it as slowly as she could, spending a lot of time thoroughly exploring her with her mouth. She ran her tongue through her folds, sucked at her gently, worked her up slowly until Root was wet and turned on and squirming under her mouth.

She kept things easy and leisurely, easing up whenever Root started getting a little too close to the edge, and held off until Root finally begged her in a half-moan to use her fingers.

A shiver went through Shaw when she entered Root with a single finger. Root was so tight and wet and the way she was clamping down on her finger was making it hard for Shaw to stay focused. She wondered if Root would care (or even be in a state to notice) if she got herself off at the same time.

Root had both hands clenched in Shaw's hair by the time she added a second finger. Her thighs were trembling on either side of Shaw's head and from the sounds and reactions she was pulling from her, Shaw knew she was close. She applied a little more pressure just so and Root fell apart under her.

She crawled back up Root's body and kissed her until she was recovered enough to return the kisses and open her mouth for Shaw's tongue. She let out a deep guttural noise of approval at the taste of herself in Shaw's mouth and reached down to dig her fingers into Shaw's ass hard enough to bruise. Apparently slow and gentle time was over.

She ended up lying mostly on top of Root and rocking into her while Root fucked her with two fingers and left what was going to be a hell of a bite mark on her neck. It was still slightly slower and softer than they usually went, but Shaw really didn't mind right then.

“What's a girl gotta do to get a wake up call like that every morning?” Root asked when Shaw was lying on her, recovering.

Nothing, Shaw thought. If some soft, morning sex was what it took to make Root look all happy and smiley like she was now then she'd make sure she got it every morning. And it wasn't like she didn't greatly benefit from it either.

But maybe she could use this to her advantage. “How about doing the dishes like you promised you would?” Root had chore-dodging down to an art.

Root stuck out her lower lip in a pout and Shaw had no choice but to bite it. Root smacked her with one hand, but was grinning and looking pleased when she ran her tongue over her swollen lip.

“Wanna move this to the bath?” she asked, fingers combing through Shaw's hair almost-too-softly.

Seemed early for a bath, but then time was pretty irrelevant in their current situation.

“I'll go start the water.”

They ended up settled in the deep whirlpool tub, Root sitting between Shaw's legs and laying back against her. She let Root enjoy a whole five minutes of peaceful soaking in the hot water before she let one of her hands wander down between Root's legs again.

“Someone woke up in a good mood,” Root teased as she spread her legs a little more for Shaw.

Shaw didn't have a good answer for that so she bit her lightly on the neck instead, relishing the way Root pushed into the bite and the small, needy noise it drew from her.

There was something enthralling about holding Root up against her in the hot water while she thrusted her fingers into her over and over. Root was arching into her and shaking and whimpering and god she wanted to shove her up against the side of the tub and fuck her until they were both spent and exhausted. She kept it slow and almost lazy though, taking note of Root's reactions to guide her. And she wrapped an arm around Root’s stomach when she came, holding her in place until she was breathing steadily again. It wasn't really a hug (she definitely did _not_ do hugs); it was only a way to make sure Root didn't drown or something.

“That was really nice.” Root sounded like she was falling asleep again. “Better than nice.”

“Much goddamn better than nice.” She shook Root a little bit. “Don't you fall asleep here.”

She had to half-drag Root out of the tub and wrap her in a large fluffy towel before draining the water. Root wandered off into the main room while Shaw was drying herself off and was sprawled across the bed by the time she found her. Since Root was already half-asleep again, Shaw took a moment to indulge in just looking at her. Her long limbs were all flung out across the bed, water droplets still beading on her skin here and there. The bottom half of her hair was dark and wet from the bath water and stuck to her skin.

“See something you like?” Root's eyes were cracked open a tiny bit.

Shaw shrugged, a little annoyed at herself for being caught staring. “You gonna sleep all day?” she asked instead of answering.

“Why? Did you have a better plan?”

At some point Shaw would need to go on her morning run, make breakfast for them, and call Reese back about the situation still unfolding in the subway, but all of that could wait. She chased Root far enough up the bed that she could pull the covers up and then slid in next to her, curling around Root's warm back, still damp from the bath.

They couldn't stay here forever, she knew (they both were going a bit crazy from boredom), but it was nice to stay here like this for a little while longer. Better than nice.


	12. Welcome Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set sometime between chapters 22 and 23 after their raid on the Samaritan base. Shaw is concerned about having drawn too much attention and possible retaliation, so she and Reese are being extra careful not to do anything their fake identities wouldn't do and Root is holed up in Shaw's apartment on mandatory lockdown for 2 weeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Root and Shaw eventually order a damn pizza.
> 
> Beats me. I just felt like writing this.
> 
> content includes: strap-ons.

Shaw's shirt was stuck to her back with sweat as she climbed the stairs to her apartment. The weather outside was beyond gross, and she'd had to take off the fancy blazer she wore for her job as Zoe's bodyguard on the way home or risk overheating.

Root was the lucky one here, she figured. Got to spend two whole weeks in air conditioning sitting on her ass and having Shaw run errands for her. Spoiled rotten.

Though Root was quite obviously not enjoying the mandatory lockdown after their raid on the Samaritan facility. She spent a lot of time staring out the window, tapping her nails lightly against the glass.

“I don't like being trapped,” she'd said when Shaw had asked what she was up to.

“You're not really trapped. It's a precaution to make sure we're safe.”

Root had smiled in that way she did when she didn't really mean it, and let herself be lured away from the window by the promise of food. But it had bugged Shaw. Twice she hadn't interfered when Root had been locked up, but a lot had changed since back then. Seeing how unhappy Root was at even being temporarily confined to a nice apartment didn't sit right with her.

It was too risky to shorten the duration of the lockdown (hell, she kind of wanted to extend it to be safe), but there was something about how Root pressed forlornly up against the window pane that made her feel restless and discontent.

But at this exact second, with the summer humidity stifling her in the stuffy stairwell, Shaw thought Root had gotten a good deal this time. She wondered what sort of mood Root would be in tonight. Maybe she should have gotten her something to cheer her up? What would Root even want though?

She opened the door to her apartment, expecting to find Root in her habitual spot on the window sill.

She froze in the doorway, keys still dangling from one hand.

“Hey, hot stuff.”

Root looked insufferably smug, but also she was...well, she was wearing...okay, so she wasn't wearing much of anything other than some lacy black lingerie and a leather jacket. And she was sprawled across the couch with one leg hooked over the couch arm.

Shaw moved forward just enough so she could shut the door behind her. She let out a long breath through her nose and then meticulously went through her normal routine for coming home: keys dropped on the table by the door, blazer hung up over the back of a chair, gun unstrapped, shoes and socks off. When she finished she looked back to see Root hadn't budged and was watching her with a small, knowing smile.

God, that was annoying.

She cleared her throat.

“Uh, have you had dinner yet? I didn't stop at the store so I figured I'd order something.”

“I think there might be something around here you can eat, Shaw.”

Shaw groaned silently. She’d walked right into that one.

“Maybe I'll order a pizza.”

Root didn't respond and another glance showed that she still looked quite pleased with herself despite Shaw's attempts to ignore her.

Since she wasn't going to win the game this way, Shaw decided to change tactics. She unbuttoned the shirt she'd been wearing and let it drop to the floor, very aware of the fact there was still sweat beaded on her bare skin. She stretched her arms over her head, taking care to flex for maximum effect.

There was a small, distressed sound from the couch.

“What's wrong, Root? You don't like pizza?” She shucked off her pants and wandered past the couch (just out of reach) towards the windows so Root could get a good view.

It was Root's turn to carefully clear her throat. “Sameen?”

“You need something?”

“Could you come over here a moment?” She'd sat up on the couch now and had a pillow in her hands that she was crushing to death.

Shaw allowed the tiniest of smiles to show so Root would know that she knew _exactly_ how much she'd enjoyed turning the tables on her. But it'd been a long day and she didn't feel like dragging this out. And also the jacket and underwear situation was very distracting. Root definitely got a few points for that.

She went over to the couch and Root tossed the pillow aside and reached for her. Shaw dodged her hands and sat down next to her instead, leaning over to grab Root by her jacket and tug until she got the idea and climbed over to straddle Shaw's legs and settle in her lap.

It was quite nice to end the day like this, Shaw reflected. It had been strange at first, having someone in her apartment all the time, but Root was good at not crowding her when she needed some space and these days it felt empty when she was away on missions.

She pushed Root's jacket back off her shoulders since even though it was a great look it was in the way now.

“You spend all day planning out this little welcome home stunt?” She slipped her hands down the back of Root's underwear.

“Not _all_ day. Half an hour at most. What can I say? Fantastic ideas just come naturally to me.”

Shaw squeezed her ass to show she wasn't amused and Root made a pleased noise and leaned in to kiss her.

Before Root she'd never been into prolonged foreplay-just get some and get out-but there was something immensely satisfying about all the little reactions she could pull out of her. Root never held back from showing how much she enjoyed something, and all the squirming and needy little moans were so worth the extra time. As was how sticky Root's underwear was when she reached down to touch her.

“All that planning and you're still the one who's a mess,” she murmured in Root's ear.

“Well, I may have gotten started before you got here." Root scrunched up her nose at her and looked smug. "Just a little.”

The mental image of Root spread out across her couch, wearing a leather jacket, and with her hand down her own underwear was definitely one that Shaw was going to file away for later use.

But right now Root’s eyes were unfocused and she was pressing into Shaw's fingers. “It's so _boring_ being stuck inside.”

“I can think of some things that are much better...inside.” Shaw shoved her underwear to one side and teased her with a single finger before pushing inside her.

Root let out a ridiculously loud moan right in her ear (which Shaw suspected was partially from the bad pun she was absolutely awarding herself points for) and Shaw almost lost her composure. Root was so damn slick and hot around her finger and what she really wanted was to lay her out on the couch and go down on her for about a year. But the way Root was sitting on top of her now with her hips jerking involuntarily from time to time gave her another idea.

She withdrew her hand and dumped Root onto the couch next to her, getting a reproachful ‘hey!’ out of her.

“Wait here.”

Root’s bottom lip was dangerously close to a pout, but she didn't follow Shaw when she made a brief trip to the bedroom.

“You game?” Shaw asked when she came back, holding up the strap-on harness with one hand.

Root had taken the opportunity to ditch the rest of her clothes in Shaw's absence, probably as an attempted counter-attack, but the look on her face made Shaw claim another victory for herself.

The fact Shaw had stripped as well was probably also helping. She probably should give herself another point for that, not that anyone was counting.

“You certainly know how to make my day less boring,” Root said once she'd remembered how to talk.

“What can I say? Fantastic ideas just come naturally to me.” She awarded herself bonus points for that one. Maybe she could talk the Machine into being a point counter for them. Loser had to do all the chores for a week. Not that Root had ever done a single chore around here, but it had potential.

Root was absolutely pouting now, but she was also almost vibrating with anticipation. She got up and relieved Shaw of the bottle of lube so she could use both hands to get herself set up.

Shaw ended up sitting on the couch, leaning against the back while Root perched on her lap and took her time thoroughly rubbing lube up and down the strap-on. She was pressing the base of it against Shaw almost rhythmically and yeah that felt pretty damn good and Shaw definitely wasn't in any hurry to speed things along.

“You good to go?” she asked when Root finally stopped. Root had felt plenty ready a few minutes ago, but she wasn't going to complain if Root needed a helping hand.

“ _Very_ good to go.”

Root lifted herself up onto her knees and then sank down slowly onto the shaft of the strap-on, her eyelids fluttering and her lips parted. Shaw's hands automatically moved to her hips to steady her, though her eyes were locked on Root's face, watching every tiny reaction.

“Okay?”

Root’s breath came out a little shaky, but her eyes were shining and her lips were curled up into a grin.

“Absolutely.”

She rested her hands lightly on Shaw's shoulders and shifted around in her lap as she adjusted. The slight stiffness eased out of her after a few seconds, and Shaw took that as her cue to roll her hips up experimentally. The guttural moan it pulled out of Root sounded so damn good and Root's fingers dug into her shoulders a little more.

“I love feeling you this deep inside me, Sameen.” Root's eyes were dark and half-lidded and her face was flushed.

Shaw couldn't decide on the right words to describe how damn good it felt to take Root like this, so instead she tightened her hold on her and started a leisurely pace of rolling her hips up and squeezing hard with her fingers. Root wrapped her arms around Shaw's neck and leaned forward against her, meeting Shaw's thrusts with her own.

It should have been weird, Shaw thought as they picked up the pace little by little, to have someone who she'd been sleeping with for this long that they were almost always completely tuned-in to each other during sex. She could tell from Root's breathing and motions when she wanted Shaw to speed things up and when something felt really good and she wanted more of it.

They'd reached a much faster pace now, moving together in a frantic rhythm, their bodies slick with sweat and sliding easily against each other. Root’s mouth was right by Shaw's ear and she was making all sorts of small whimpers and gasps that were almost better than the feeling of the base of the strap-on pressing up against Shaw. Almost.

“So, Sameen-” Root took a shaky breath. “-how was your day?”

Shaw almost lost her rhythm for a second.

“How was _my day_?”

“Mmmmmm, yeaaah.”

Someday Shaw would remember not to underestimate the amount of weird shit Root was into.

“It was, uh, alright?” Concentrating on remembering what she'd done earlier didn't exactly seem like a high priority. With the way Root was moving on top of her and the wonderfully painful scratches Root's nails were leaving all over her back she wasn't sure she could reliably remember five minutes ago let alone earlier.

“Did you...ohhh...did you get to shoot anyone?”

Shaw dug her fingers into Root's hips, hard, and was rewarded by some more great noises and Root squirming around deliciously in her lap. God, that was really the best, and...what had the question been again? Shooting someone?

Well, she definitely hadn't shot anyone, but maybe she could improvise.

“Oh, yeah, I shot _tons_ of guys. Like, uh, at least ten.”

Root’s hips jerked erratically and she bit lightly at Shaw's neck.

“Actually more like fifteen guys. It was a total blood bath.” Thinking up more creative details was beyond her at the moment, but Root didn't seem to mind.

“And...oh god Shaw…what did you...have for lunch?”

 _Lunch_?

“Uh…” She was getting pretty close now, especially with the way Root kept nipping at her neck. She couldn't remember what the hell lunch even was.

Fortunately Root decided to shift just the right way on top of her and she was too preoccupied with her body tensing up as she came and her brain blanking out for a few glorious seconds to worry much about answering the question.

Root was still rocking desperately on top of her, her breath coming out in short pants right in Shaw's ear. Shaw regrouped enough to start rolling her hips up into her again and snaked a hand down between their sweaty bodies to apply some pressure to Root's clit.

“Let's see...” Shaw could think more clearly now. “I grabbed a sandwich for myself in the afternoon. Pastrami on rye.”

If Root had any thoughts on that she didn't seem to be in a state to voice them, though she did manage a pitiful little whine.

Shaw smirked to herself. “Wanna know how it tasted?”

There was no way to tell if any of the noises Root was making were in response to her question so she decided that meant yes. She nosed Root's hair out of the way so she could talk right in her ear the way Root had been doing to her earlier and made sure her voice came out as deep as she could manage.

“It tasted _real good_ , Root.”

Which of course was exactly what it took to push Root over the edge. Shaw had never rolled her eyes before _while_ Root was having an orgasm, but hey, there was a first time for everything.

Root slumped bonelessly on top of her after, breathing heavily against her shoulder. She let Shaw help her lift herself up and off the strap-on, but then immediately collapsed back on top of her. It couldn't have been that comfortable with the damn toy still pressed between them, but Root seemed too spent to care.

Shaw pushed some of the sweaty locks of hair plastered to Root's face back behind her ear. Root was always doing that for her so she figured it must be a thing she liked, and it definitely made Root smile a little and butt her face into Shaw's neck more.

Shaw gave her a minute or two before deciding she was probably recovered enough to discuss important matters.

“ _How_ was _my day_?”

Root giggled briefly and then rolled off of her to flop on the couch.

“What can I say, Shaw? Everything about you turns me on.”

“Surprised you don't have the Machine keeping tabs on me while I'm out.”

“Well, obviously I do, but I like hearing you tell me about it.”

Apparently she liked hearing about it while Shaw was banging her brains out.

“You’re really weird, you know that?” She didn't say it unkindly though. It almost came out sounding fond, which wasn't like her at all. But if Root wasn't so damn weird they probably never would have ended up where they were now.

“Mmmm, I know.” Root looked proud of herself. She sat up a little more and took a deep breath. “Now, did you say something about pizza, or am I going to have to find something else to eat?”

Root ‘winked’ which meant Shaw got to roll her eyes again and then they both got to eat something before they finally ordered the damn pizza.

But the next night when Shaw got home, Root was back to being curled up on the window ledge with her hand pressed against the glass.

“You eat dinner yet?” Shaw asked, even though she knew Root never did before she got back.

“No, not yet.” Root's voice sounded far away.

“Well, did you want something to eat?”

“Hmmm.”

Shaw frowned. Root had passed up an opportunity for innuendo, which meant drastic measures were called for.

She held back a sigh and went over to tug on Root's arm until she finally unfolded herself from the window sill. She dragged her into the kitchen and gave her a little push towards a chair.

She let the silence stand while she dug around in the fridge for ingredients to get dinner started, aware that Root was watching her curiously.

“So,” she said as she shut the fridge door with her hip, “wanna hear about how my day was?”

Root looked confused for a second, and then her entire face lit up.

“Definitely.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the wonderful and talented maarika did a great slightly-nsfw-ish drawing of Root from the beginning of this chapter that can be seen [here](https://sapphicteaparty.tumblr.com/post/175614798707/root-from-feedback-loops-by-asleepinawell)!


	13. Not Doing The Dishes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another one that takes place during chapter 41 while they're staying at the cabin.
> 
> Shaw finally talks Root into doing the damn dishes. Root is dramatically emo about it so Shaw gives her a hand. Short and pointless.
> 
> (spoiler: the dishes do not get done but root does)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rated E
> 
> content includes: chore shirking, wasting water
> 
> I've been awful at responding to comments lately. apologies for that. life has been a bit not fun. I do read and appreciate every single one of them and I'll try to respond this time.

* * *

“This would be going a whole lot faster if you actually put in some effort,” Shaw pointed out from the other side of the cabin.

Root stuck her lower lip out in a pout as she sadly regarded the sink full of dirty dishes. She'd turned the water on and poured a little soap into an empty cereal bowl so soap suds were splashing everywhere, but she hadn't made a move to pick up the sponge yet. Maybe she could get away with rinsing them off.

“And you can't just dump soap on them and then rinse them off. You actually have to clean them,” Shaw added as if she'd heard Root's thoughts.

“I know how to wash dishes.” She'd washed the dishes as a kid, and had a few cover identities who'd needed to as well. Once she'd spent half a day doing nothing but dishes in a restaurant, but she'd had Her talking to her the entire time, keeping her entertained. But now….

“Sure doesn't look like it.”

Root almost jumped when Shaw spoke from right next to her. She'd been so absorbed in staring at the water running down the drain that she hadn't noticed Shaw sneak up and lean against the counter next to the sink.

“You up to this?” There was perhaps the tiniest thread of concern in Shaw's voice, just enough to make Root feel guilty.

“Yes, I’m fine. It's not that.” The mostly-healed bullet wound in her side still got sore and achy a lot, but it wasn't bothering her right now and she didn't want Shaw to worry about that. “It's just...washing dishes is so... _boring_.” And being bored was very high up on her list of least favorite things.

Shaw actually chuckled. “Of course it's boring. Most chores are. That's why people take turns doing them.”

Root couldn't hold back a sad, little sigh, because Shaw was right, and it wasn't fair for her to keep dodging all the chores so Shaw had to do them. She still wasn't used to playing fair with another person.

“There are maybe four dishes in the sink.” Shaw shook her head. “Stop being so dramatic about this.”

Root picked up the sponge, unenthusiastically. Sure there were only four dishes now, but once the dish-washing precedent was set there were an infinite number of dishes waiting in the future. She felt like she was drowning in potential dishes.

She almost jumped again when Shaw pressed up against her from behind, pushing her hips firmly into the counter. How did she keep getting the drop on her like this?

“Tell you what,” Shaw breathed into the side of her neck. Her hands rested on the counter on either side of Root, trapping her against the sink. “You do the dishes, and I'll make sure you don't get bored.”

Root decided that she was suddenly thoroughly invested in making sure all these dishes were sparkling clean. “If I'd known about this part of dish-washing, I'd have volunteered ages ago.”

“Yeah, I _bet_.”

One of Shaw's hands found its way between the press of their bodies and down the back of the loose boxers she'd taken to wearing around the cabin. Root almost dropped the sponge when Shaw squeezed her ass and pressed into her with her hips.

“Start scrubbing or I'll stop.”

Root tentatively picked up a plate from the sink, trying to split her attention between the sink and the way Shaw’s hips were pressing lightly but rhythmically against her. Usually she was good at multitasking, but this was going to be a bit of a challenge.

She had to put one hand down in the sink to catch her balance when Shaw's knee pushed between her legs. Warm water and soap suds soaked her forearm.

“I don't hear the sounds of dishes being cleaned.”

“Maybe you could hear better with your fingers in me.”

She couldn't see Shaw roll her eyes, but she knew with complete certainty that she had. Still, she needed to make an effort. Shaw was completely capable of leaving her here without a backwards glance.

She managed to focus enough to pick up both the sponge and a dish, and made vague efforts to apply one to the other. Shaw bit down lightly on the side of her neck, perhaps as a reward.

She made a small noise of protest when Shaw’s hand stopped squeezing her ass, but the noise was quickly followed by a strangled whimper when Shaw moved her arm around between Root and the counter so she could slip it between her legs.

Root decided she probably deserved some sort of medal for not dropping the dish back into the sink.

Shaw’s fingers were pressed lightly against her, not moving and shifting away slightly whenever Root tried to push against them.

“Sameen…” This was not at all fair.

“You've just been holding that one dish this entire time. You start using your hands and maybe I'll start using mine.”

Root set about scrubbing the plate with fierce determination, and after a few seconds of warm water and soap bubbles, Shaw started moving her fingers against her, stroking and circling just enough to feel really good but not give her any relief.

It was an awkward position to hold, both hands engaged in dish-washing, her legs spread far enough that her balance felt slightly off, and Shaw's hips pinning her against the counter. Shaw’s free arm wrapped around her and under her shirt, high enough up that she wouldn't accidentally jostle her injury and could also squeeze her breast hard enough that her breath strutted out in appreciation.

“Think that one's done now.” Shaw was craning her neck to look over Root's shoulder at the sink. “Put it on the side and move on to the next one.”

Root carefully placed the dish on the drying rack and reached for the next one, which was exactly when Shaw chose to press inside her with one finger. She slipped forward and caught herself with both hands flat against the bottom of the sink. The metal was slippery under her fingers and only Shaw's arm was keeping her upright.

“Move onto the next one,” Shaw reminded her sternly. Shaw's finger was deep inside her, but she wasn't doing anything with it and any efforts on Root's part to fuck herself on it were stilled by Shaw pinning her hips.

Very unfair.

She picked up the next dish and was rewarded by Shaw curling her finger just right and then starting a slow pattern of sliding in and out of her, curling her finger on every thrust.

Root found herself inadvertently rubbing the sponge against the dish in time to Shaw's movements inside her.

“I think…” Root licked her lips and concentrated on keeping her voice steady. “I think I could probably be scrubbing this dish a little more...forcefully.”

“Oh yeah?” Shaw sounded amused.

“Mmhmm. You know, with the right motivation.”

Shaw snorted softly, but slid a second finger into her. Root's hands stopped moving and tightened their hold, squeezing all the water out of the sponge. Shaw kept biting lightly at the side of her neck and pinching her nipple while her hips thrust up against Root's ass. How was she supposed to concentrate like this?

“How's that dish coming along?”

“It's coming along just great, Sameen.” It was probably a very good thing that Shaw was slightly too short to keep tabs on what was actually going on in the sink.

Shaw’s fingers sped up and Root's hands scrabbled along the bottom of the sink, trying to find purchase on the wet metal. Warm water sloshed over the edge, drenching the front of her shirt and undoubtedly Shaw's arm as well.

Shaw didn't slow down a bit, even though Root had long since given up on even pretending to clean. Root let out a soft moan of appreciation as Shaw's fingers hit her just right over and over again. Her legs were trembling from the combination of holding her awkward position and the things Shaw's fingers were doing to her. She pushed back into the movement of Shaw's hips against her, which meant she pressed forward hard enough with her own hips that she was probably cutting off all the circulation to Shaw's arm, but Shaw didn't seem to mind.

Shaw bit down, hard, on the back of her neck, and Root’s entire body locked up for a few glorious seconds before she went limp and almost fell face-first into the sink.

Fortunately Shaw had been ready for that and held her up with one arm around her hips and the other around her chest. Root smiled to herself at the feeling of being encircled in Shaw's arms, held safe. She rarely felt this warm, contented glow these days (it was almost impossible to feel content with the silence that remained), and even if it was partially afterglow she reveled in it.

Shaw released her as soon as she got her balance back.

“You didn't even finish the second dish, did you?”

“Honestly, Shaw? I'm not sure I did a very good job with the first one, either.”

“Last time I try to give you any encouragement. Next time we're working on a reward-based system only.”

“Next time?” This was the problem with chores. They were never really done.

“Yeah, next time, Root. As in a few hours from now when you _actually_ do the dishes.”

Root perked up. A few hours was plenty of time to find a way out of this. “And what're we going to be doing until then?”

Shaw tossed a dish towel to her. “Wash your hands off. You're going to need them.”

She liked where this was headed. “Why whatever for?”

Shaw sat down on the edge of the bed and beckoned her over. Root sank into her lap and leaned down to kiss her.

“If dishwashing always ends this way, I'll do the damn dishes five times a day,” she murmured against Shaw's lips.

“They didn't even get done once yet. You're the only thing that got done here.”

“Tragic.”

Shaw rolled her eyes. “Your shirt’s soaked.”

“Mmm, take it off for me?”

The dishes sat in the sink for a long time.


	14. Fading Scars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Actually set after STC and probably should be in Approximate Futures, but it felt like it fit better here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been in the middle of writing 2 other chapters for this for months now and they're both kind of stuck, but I wrote this in a single afternoon. Hopefully I'll finish one or both of the others at some point soon.
> 
> Since Shaw was never taken by Samaritan in STC, there were no simulations. If this took place in the canon universe there are a couple lines that someone might suspect sounded like they were tied to a simulation. That's definitely not the case here though and while I don't think it really reads that way I just wanted to be clear.

It was cold when Shaw woke up. She was still buried under the massive heap of blankets Root insisted on during the winter (despite central heating, a warm dog, and her shameless attempts to snuggle up against Shaw), so physically she didn't feel chilly, and yet she was cold in some way she couldn't quite define.

She slid one arm across the mattress, searching, but the bed had been vacated, the sheets cool under her fingers. She opened her eyes enough to determine that, yes, the other side of the bed was in fact empty, and frowned.

Something felt...off. Wrong. But she couldn't begin to place what it might be, and the more she thought about it, the more the answer faded away from her.

The background noise of the shower finally registered in her brain and she relaxed slightly. Root must have woken up early for once and jumped in the shower. Hopefully it hadn't been another nightmare. They were infrequent these days, but still recurring. Usually those woke up Shaw as well though and Root wouldn't be able to go back to sleep until Shaw curled up around her.

Those days were ones when Shaw called off whatever plans she had and they stayed home, or, in the rare instances when she had to leave, she left Bear in bed with Root with strict orders to keep an eye on her.

But if Root was up on her own and in the shower then it was unlikely she'd had a nightmare. Shaw vaguely recalled that the Machine had a mission for Root today so maybe that was why she was up.

The uncomfortable feeling that something was off didn't leave Shaw as she got up and wandered over to the bathroom door. It was like there was something lurking in her peripheral vision that vanished when she turned to try and look at it.

She knocked on the door before entering, even though she knew Root didn't care.

“Shaw? Did I wake you up?” Root's face peered around the shower curtain, wet hair plastered to her head.

“Not sure.” She stood in the middle of the bathroom, not certain what she wanted to do next.

Root watched her silently for a minute and then stretched out a hand. “Well, do you want me to wake you up properly?” The teasing grin made her meaning abundantly clear.

“Yeah, okay.”

The bathroom had already felt like a rainforest, but the actual shower was even more extreme. Root took scorching hot showers that left her skin bright red after, and while Shaw didn't mind them, they weren't her preference when she showered alone.

Root’s hands were all over her the second she got in, but she brushed them off and backed Root up against the wall, out of the scalding hot water, and ran her hands all over her. She started at her hips and then trailed her fingers up her sides, down her arms and back up, along her shoulders to her neck. The longer she touched her, the more her unease retreated.

“All present and accounted for?” Root asked, clearly amused.

She couldn't quite bring herself to tell Root to shut up right then, so instead she leaned up to kiss her while her hands moved over her with a different purpose. Root shifted to spread her legs a little, and Shaw's fingers moved down to explore.

She watched Root with an intensity that was unusual for her, focused in on the movements of Root's throat when she swallowed as Shaw slipped a single finger into her. Root's head fell back against the wall and her eyes fluttered shut.

“Someone's in a hurry this morning,” Root murmured, a lazy smile on her lips. Her fingers dug into Shaw's side just short of bruising.

“I can take my time if you'd rather, but I thought you had to run off on a mission.”

Root opened her mouth to respond, but lost focus when Shaw slid a second finger into her. Shaw's free hand played with one of Root's breasts, squeezing and pinching playfully.

“I did, but...fuck.”

Shaw smirked and adjusted the angle of her fingers again, watching Root's face as she did.

“But what, Root?”

Root let out a shaky breath. “She told me She didn't need my help today after all.”

“Just now?” Shaw asked, wary for some reason she couldn't quite define.

“A few minutes ago. Why?”

The timing felt a little suspicious, but Shaw was too distracted to worry much about it yet.

Root grabbed the hand pawing at her breasts and pulled it up higher, wrapping Shaw's fingers around her throat. “Please.” Her eyes were half-open now, lips slightly parted, cheeks flushed from more than just the shower.

Shaw sped up her movements inside Root as she tightened her fingers around her neck, and for a few minutes the uneasiness went away.

* * *

 

“I thought this was supposed to be a busy week,” Shaw said sometime later. Neither of them had bothered to dry off after the shower and the sheets were now soaked beneath them from their skin and hair.

Root’s mouth was too occupied to reply, but she squeezed Shaw's ass hard with one hand to let her know this wasn't the time to talk about her schedule. Shaw tightened her fingers in her hair and pressed her heel more firmly into Root's back which only made Root work harder to hold her still. They were both going to have all sorts of fun bruises later.

“Holiday season always brings out the crazies,” Shaw continued, working hard to keep her voice steady despite what Root was doing between her legs.

Root’s fingers bit into her extra hard and Shaw couldn't suppress a chuckle because how was that supposed to _discourage_ her?

Root pulled back for a minute to look up the length of Shaw's body. “Even the crazies need a day off.”

Shaw played with a few locks of Root's hair, still stringy and wet from the shower. “Guess so.”

“Is something wrong, Sameen?”

She had a hard time meeting Root's eyes so she stared at her mouth instead, watched her absent-mindedly lick the taste of Shaw off her lips.

She didn't want to lie, but she wasn't sure how not to. That weird tattered thread of something being slightly off was persistent.

“I don't know.”

She kept playing with Root's hair and not meeting her eyes, tensed for whatever response came from her confession. But after a few seconds, Root just ducked her head back down and picked up where she'd left off, and Shaw let herself get lost in the feeling of Root's mouth, hot and insistent against her.

* * *

 

“Sometimes I get mad at myself for them,” Root said, breaking Shaw out of her thoughts.

Shaw’s fingers paused where they'd been trailing over the pink scar on Root's side, a souvenir from their final fight with Samaritan.

“Mad at yourself for what?” Neither of them had said anything in a while so Shaw was truly lost.

“These.” Root’s finger ghosted after hers along the scar. “Like they're some sort of failure. Proof I wasn't fast enough or good enough. That I fucked up.”

Shaw snorted softly. “I've got way more than you, and I never fuck up. Shit just happens.”

Root nodded, her hair (almost dry now) soft on Shaw's shoulder. “She tells me that scars aren’t proof of a weakness--they're proof of survival.”

“Exactly.” At least the Machine had good sense.

“Even the scars that aren't visible.”

She meant her nightmares, Shaw realized. A different type of scar, to be sure, but the principle was the same.

“Makes sense.”

That crawling unease she'd had since she'd woken up came back. Had it been a nightmare? Is that what they were like? She couldn't remember anything, only a sense of discomfort and worry when she'd woken up, like everything was very slightly and subtlety off. But then it wouldn't be surprising that bad dreams would be different for her than for Root.

And she could absolutely understand Root's frustration with not being able to control her nightmares or logic away the fading unrest they caused her. There was nothing here for her to be worried about, and yet she was. It was dumb and she hated it and the fact the Machine and Root both _knew_ and had changed their plans because of her….

But that was what Root had been on about with being mad at herself, wasn't it? Somehow it was harder to let go of it from this side of the equation.

And maybe she could look at it as a good thing: a bit of understanding of a part of Root’s life she hadn't had context for before.

She breathed out some of the tension she hadn't even realized she was still holding and felt Root smile against her skin.

“You sure we're clear for the day?” Shaw asked.

“She's very sure.”

“Good.”

Shaw pushed Root's shoulder until she rolled onto her back and sprawled across the mattress. She sat up enough that she could take her in, her breath catching a little at the mixture of trust and desire in Root's eyes.

“Do your job right and maybe I'll be too sore and spent to go anywhere tomorrow either,” Root teased, reaching for her.

She let Root pull her down into a kiss. “Didn't think the Machine would take that as an excuse. Especially if it was on purpose.”

“I guess there's only one way to find out.” Root's eyes danced with life and mischief and then lost focus when Shaw's fingers found their way between her legs again.

They spent the rest of the morning taking turns to chase away the faded remnants of dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this because I randomly found myself thinking about what a nightmare would be like for Shaw, especially outside the context of s4-5 canon.
> 
> If juxtaposed against the canon universe, I can see this being a bit sad, but hey I wrote STC because Fuck Canon so really the takeaway should be much happier. I hope. One of the other chapters I have half done is just gratuitous pwp with like zero angst so let's all hope I get off my ass and finish that soon.


	15. Blatant Clothing Theft

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Root takes 'getting into Shaw's pants' a little too literally. Well, her boy shorts anyway.
> 
> Complete pwp.
> 
> From the middle of chapter 30, which is right after they get lost in the woods and Root is on a mandatory week off and bored.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A friend of mine requested this like forever ago and it's been half-written for a small eternity and I finally got my shit together to finish it.
> 
> Very E rated.

Root was inordinately pleased with herself. Wearing a pair of Shaw's boy shorts had truly been one her most inspired ideas.

Shaw's reactions were often so slight, so easy to overlook (though Root was always looking) that seeing her jaw drop had been the ultimate achievement. Flustered wasn't a word that Root associated with Shaw, but this time it was the only one that fit.

“What the hell, Root?”

Root widened her eyes in a look of pure innocence.

“Is something wrong, sweetie?”

“You're wearing...those are….” Shaw couldn't even form sentences.

Root wasn't sure if she'd ever felt so proud of herself. Rendering Sameen Shaw speechless. She'd done great things today.

And hopefully was about to do more.

Shaw narrowed her eyes. “Root, do we need to have a talk about your clothing kleptomania again?”

She must have noticed that Root had borrowed her tank top as well. Shaw had made her move most of her clothes to her apartment and she didn't have easy access to a washing machine here in the subway, but she'd just accidentally happened to have Shaw's shirt here? How had that even happened? It was a mystery.

But there were more important matters at hand than how Shaw's clothes kept showing up in her possession all on their own.

“Oh, are these yours?” Root fidgeted with the waistband of the boy shorts. “I must have gotten dressed while half-asleep this morning.”

Shaw looked like she was trying very hard to glare at her, but her eyes kept darting down to watch Root's fingers.

“I'm terribly sorry,” Root continued, without a hint of remorse. “Should I take them off?”

Shaw shut her eyes and gritted her teeth, no doubt trying to convince herself that she wasn't completely turned on right now. A futile effort if Root had anything to do with it.

She plopped down in Shaw's lap, straddling her, and Shaw's eyes shot back open.

“Maybe you should take them off for me?” Root smiled impishly.

Shaw must have given up because her hands came up to rest on Root's hips, fingertips brushing the top of her underwear. Root smiled encouragingly (even though Shaw was staring down at her legs like she'd never seen them before) and moved her own hands to Shaw's shoulders, kneading them a little with her thumbs.

Shaw's hands roamed a little higher and she let out a small breath when she discovered Root hadn't bothered with a bra. Her fingers brushed over Root's breasts, her touch so light it almost tickled. She hesitated.

“Can, uh, is she watching us?”

Root glanced back over her shoulder and shrugged. The Machine was always watching. She might give them the illusion of privacy, but it was only that: an illusion.

And she rather liked the idea that the Machine could see them together like this, that there was some witness to her time with Shaw, something more permanent than the marks they left all over each other that faded far too quickly.

But Shaw was asking and they both had to respect that as much as they were able.

“She'll turn the camera off if it makes you feel better.”

“And the mic.”

Root chuckled, tangled her fingers in Shaw's hair, and leaned forward until their foreheads touched. “You planning on being loud, sweetie?”

“Maybe. Maybe I'm gonna make you scream.”

A shiver ran through Root at the promise in Shaw's voice.

Shaw abandoned her hold on Root's shirt in favor of sliding her hands down the back of her boy shorts. She squeezed, bruisingly hard, and Root leaned in to reward her with a rough kiss. She'd gotten Shaw so worked up already just with a little dress-up.

“Can you just…” Shaw pulled back. “Can we put something over the camera?” 

Root raised an eyebrow, amused, and grabbed the bottom of her tank top, slowly pulling it up and over her head before half-turning to drop it over the camera next to the monitor. Shaw had never been anything approaching modest or shy; what in the world had she and the Machine been talking about?

“That better?”

She got to work unbuckling Shaw's belt before she had time to respond.

“Wait.”

She paused. Wait wasn't a word that got used frequently when they were together like this, unless it was part of some game.

“Bear needs to leave now.” Shaw looked serious. She kept claiming that Bear had been traumatized by one of their earlier adventures. Root wasn't sure if traumatized was the right word, but he'd definitely started howling. Rude.

She got up to let Shaw usher Bear out of the subway car and close the door behind him. Shaw whispered something to him about being a good boy that pulled a little smile from Root. Shaw fussing over her dog was adorable.

She had to wait for Shaw to use the bottle of hand sanitizer they kept in the subway car for just these purposes (John thought it was to keep the mouse and keyboard clean. So adorably oblivious of him) before she could push her into the chair again and plop back into her lap.

“We'll have to see about this screaming situation, Sameen. I have plans. Serious plans. And while screaming and possibly even begging are involved, I don't anticipate I'll be doing any of it myself.”

Partly true anyway. Her plans hadn't gotten much beyond causally showing up in Shaw's underwear, but she was great at improvising.

“What'd you have in mind?” Shaw’s hands had crept down the back of the boy shorts again. Apparently she couldn't resist touching Root under them.

Which gave Root an idea.

She climbed off Shaw again, and grabbed her wrists to regretfully pull her hands away from their current task. Shaw looked disappointed but didn't fight her on it.

Root placed Shaw's hands down on the armrests of the computer chair.

“Stay,” she said, giving one hand a little pat.

“Or what?”

“Or I'll stop what I'm doing.” She shoved some things around on the desk so there was room for her to sit on the edge.

“You're not doing too much yet.” Shaw sounded unimpressed, but she hadn't moved her hands yet and she was definitely watching Root with rapt attention.

“Always in such a rush,” Root scolded as she got herself comfortable on the edge of the desk. “Sometimes you need to slow down so you can really...savor things, Sameen.” She spread her legs to make sure Shaw would have a great view and then slipped a hand down to start touching herself over her underwear. Shaw's underwear.

Shaw’s eyes widened and her fingers tensed slightly on the arm rests, but she didn't move.

Root leaned back on the hand that wasn't busy between her legs so she could push her hips forward, exaggerating the movements a bit for Shaw's benefit. Her head fall back, eyes shut, and she let out a moan knowing exactly how the noises she made did things to Shaw.

But when she cracked one eye open to see the damage, Shaw was looking down and frowning.

Well, that was unacceptable.

“This not doing it for you, sweetie?”

“No, it's not that. It's….” Shaw scowled. “You gotta take the fucking slippers off, Root. They're just...they're killing the mood, okay?”

Root looked down at her own feet. She'd completely forgotten about the bunny slippers she'd put on to avoid walking barefoot in the subway. She didn't see how they could possibly kill the mood, but whatever.

She kicked them off so they landed on the other side of the car, out of Shaw's view.

“Better?”

Shaw had already focused back in on where her hand was still rubbing lazy circles between her legs. “Yeah, sure.”

Root pressed a little more firmly, leaning back again. The fact it was Shaw's underwear she was rubbing up against herself was definitely speeding things along for her. “What should I do next, Sameen?”

Shaw didn't answer, either too distracted or sensing it was a trap, that Root would refuse to do whatever it was she asked her to. Which, maybe she would have. It could be fun.

Root reclaimed Shaw's attention by lifting one of her feet and putting it on Shaw's leg. She curled her toes a little and pressed hard against Shaw's leg as she ran her foot up and down the length of her thigh. Shaw must have caught on to where this was headed, because she shifted around so she could spread her legs on the chair. Root's foot found its way between her legs and pressed into her over her jeans. Shaw pushed forward as much as she could without moving her arms and grunted slightly in approval at the contact.

But Root needed to keep her focused on the important bit so she left off rubbing herself to slip her hand inside the boy shorts and touch herself under them. She was unsurprised to find how wet she was and went back to grinding against her own hand, letting out breathy little gasps at appropriate intervals.

Would Shaw reclaim her boy shorts after this? Would she wear them again? Just the thought of it made Root get a little wetter. Maybe she could talk Shaw into switching things up and wearing some of her underwear next time.

And now she was the one distracted. She checked back in on Shaw.

Shaw was completely focused in on the movements of her hand now, eyes wide and Root's foot almost forgotten. Root pressed a little harder with her foot and saw Shaw's fingers dig into the chair arms, knuckles white.

Time to up the stakes then. Root slid a single finger into herself. After a few shallow thrusts she added a second finger and picked up the pace, moving her hips to meet her own thrusts.

Shaw was fixated on where she could see the movements of Root's fingers under the material and made a noise suspiciously like a whine. Root fought down a smirk.

“Oh god, Sameen, this feels so good.” How far could she push her before she snapped? “You should feel how wet I am--” She batted her eyes. “--you know, in your underwear.”

Root’s foot was shoved to the side as Shaw surged forward, her head between Root's legs and her mouth pressed against the fabric of the boy shorts where Root was still slowly fucking herself.

“Someone broke the rules,” Root teased, delighted by her victory.

Shaw raised her head back up enough that she could make eye contact. “Does it look like I give a single fuck?” It came out low, almost a growl, and it made Root's breath catch a little.

Shaw tugged on her hand until Root carefully withdrew it from her shorts so Shaw could press her mouth up against her more fully. And, yep, having Shaw go down on her while she was wearing her underwear had definitely been an inspired idea. She was an absolute fucking genius. She should make herself a sex genius award and hang it in the subway to upset the boys.

She put her freed hand behind her on the desk so she could rock her hips forward into Shaw's mouth. Shaw's hands curled around her hips, fingernails digging in.

“Shaw…”

Shaw looked up without stopping to meet her eyes.

“How about you fuck me in your shorts now.”

Shaw pulled back and caught her breath. Her face was flushed and her eyes dark, pupils blown. “Thought you didn't want me to move my hands?” Her grin was cheeky.

“Seeing that you already did, might as well put them to good use.” She had really not carried through on the whole ‘I'll stop if you move’ part, but who could blame her?

Shaw got up from the chair and planted one hand on the desk next to Root to lean in and kiss her. Root made a small pleased noise when Shaw's tongue touched hers which turned into a whimper when Shaw's fingers dipped into her shorts.

Shaw slid into her with two fingers, curling them just right. Root wrapped her leg around Shaw's hip to pull her in deeper. They hadn't been able to do this for so long after the stock exchange that it felt like they were making up for lost time.

Something had changed subtlety since then--another small wall between them vanished--and everything felt newly intimate. She wanted all of Shaw on her and in her, a physical reassurance that she was alive and still with her.

Shaw’s fingers stroked deep inside her and she added a third finger, her thrusts rocking her hard into Root, and yeah Root was going to be feeling this tomorrow, and that thought just turned her on more, and she clenched down hard on Shaw’s fingers. She shifted her weight to one arm to support herself and fumbled with the button and zipper on Shaw's pants, suddenly desperate to feel her before she fell apart.

There wasn't a lot of room to maneuver, but she did her best and fuck Shaw was so warm and wet under her fingers and she just felt so damn _good_ that it was a wonder Root didn't come just from that.

“Guess someone was a fan of my wardrobe after all,” she murmured, voice a little uneven.

“Don't get any ideas,” Shaw managed to get out. “Next time I'll just take them back and leave.”

Maybe that shouldn't have been hot, but the idea of Shaw ripping her own boy shorts off of her was not really a deterrent.

She slid two fingers into Shaw. The jeans made the angle a little shallower than she wanted, but Shaw felt so good around her fingers, hot and slick and clenching down just right and….

Root’s body stiffened and her breath froze in her lungs as she came. Shaw's fingers slowed but didn't stop, working her through it until she regained enough control to start moving inside Shaw again.

“Let me taste your fingers, Sameen.”

Shaw made a slight choked noise at the demand but disengaged her hand to hold her fingers up in front of Root. Root wrapped her lips around them and sucked the taste of herself off of Shaw's fingers. She ran her tongue over and around one finger--which got some great breathy noises out of Shaw--and sped up with her fingers. She thought Shaw's eyes might have rolled back in her head a little when she came, and she slumped forward, resting her forehead on Root's shoulder and panting.

Root withdrew her fingers, but left her hand where it was, stroking Shaw gently. “Still mad at me for borrowing your clothes, sweetie?”

“Give me like five minutes and I'll be mad about it again.” Shaw raised her head and tilted it to one side, her eyes dancing. “Unless….”

Root started moving her fingers again and Shaw twitched under them. “Unless what?”

“Unless you keep doing exactly that. Fuck.”

By the time she'd gotten Shaw off again and they'd moved their fun to the bed and Shaw had finally stripped her boy shorts off of her (mostly with her teeth) and Shaw had carried through on her promise to make her scream she figured that she was in the clear for the whole clothing theft thing.

Until next time anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fucking bunny slippers. Root is such a disaster.
> 
> There was going to be screaming and begging at one point but, like Root, I got distracted.


	16. Snow Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place directly after chapter 35. Root and Shaw had just finished bailing out Root's nerd squad and were staying in their swanky hotel room overnight while Shaw recovered from a nasty cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Complete and utter fluff. No smut at all, sorry. 
> 
> According to google docs, I started writing this back in early October and I've poked at it once or twice since then. I've actually been working on a different chapter and ended up finishing this one as a way of procrastinating from that one.

A particularly obnoxious coughing fit woke Shaw up way too early. Judging by how sore her throat was she guessed she'd been coughing half the night. She sat up and leaned against the headboard until the fit subsided, and then fumbled around on the nightstand for the box of tissues.

Whoever had gotten her sick was going to die painfully and that was all there was to it.

Once she could almost breathe normally again she took in her surroundings. The Machine had spared no expenses this time on the quality of hotel rooms. They had a full suite, all swank and plush, and under other circumstances she'd have been ready to spend a few days getting some r&r there. Circumstances where she could breathe out of her nose. And where Root wasn't passed out on her laptop at the little desk in the corner.

A glance at the clock showed it was 5am, too early for her to be up, and too late for Root who usually crashed around 4. What time Root had put her head down for just a second and drifted off?

Well, she couldn't leave her there.

“Root, wake up.”

No response. She debated chucking her box of tissues at her, but that would leave her in dire straits next time she needed to blow her nose. No, she was going to have to get out from under the warm covers, sick and miserable as she was, and go wake Root up herself.

What a pain in her ass.

Root stirred when Shaw shook her shoulder.

“Hmm?” She didn't even move.

“You fell asleep on your laptop. Come get in bed.”

Root raised her head a little and blinked a few times.

“Bed sounds nice.” She looked Shaw up and down. “You're naked.” She sounded delighted by this fact.

Shaw thumped her lightly on the head. “Bed. Sleep. Now.”

She herded sleepy Root over to the bed and made her take her clothes off before she allowed her to collapse over into the nest of sheets and blankets. Root was already asleep again by the time Shaw took some more cold medicine and crawled back in. Her skin was ice cold to the touch, which usually would lead to her sticking her frozen feet against Shaw's legs, but she was breathing deeply, unaware of the fact she was shivering.

Shaw sighed and rolled over closer to her. She'd warm up on her own in a few minutes, but until then…. Shaw curled up against her, fighting down another coughing fit. She was a bit disgusted with both herself and Root right now. World’s most cold-blooded and formidable (former) assassins, both down for the count.

Hopefully they'd be doing better after a few hours of sleep.

* * *

 

It had been so long since Shaw had last gotten a cold that she hadn't remembered how bloody awful they were. When she next woke up, her entire chest ached from coughing, and her throat felt raw.

It was a little after 7am this time, and there was sunlight streaming in through the curtains. Next to her in bed, Root was sprawled out on her back, lost in a deep, exhausted sleep. One of her arms was flung out, hanging over the side of the bed, and her hair was in her face, stirring slightly with her breaths.

Yesterday she'd talked about the Machine, about why she liked having her there in her ear all the time, and while Shaw didn't completely understand the appeal of having a voice in her head 24/7, knowing that someone was keeping an eye on Root when there was no one sleeping next to her was reassuring. (Root must have noticed by now that Shaw always slept between her and the door, but she never mentioned it).

She grabbed a handful of tissues off the nightstand and got out of bed, shivering a little in the chilly air. She paused to tuck Root's arm back into the bed, and brush her hair out of her face. Then she went over to part the curtains enough to get a look outside.

It had snowed more overnight, and everything was blanketed in white. The roads hadn't been plowed yet, so even if they had planned to leave soon they wouldn't have gotten very far. Good thing they were in no rush and had the room for another night if they needed it.

Another coughing fit took over and she had to lean against the window until it passed. Being sick was unacceptably inconvenient.

“Sameen?”

Root was still half-asleep, peering over at her groggily. Somehow her damn hair was already back in her face. How the hell had she managed that?

“Go back to sleep.”

“Are you coming back to bed?”

She _was_ unusually tired thanks to the goddamn cold and she didn't have anything else to do this morning.

Root slid over next to her when she got back in and tried to take up her habitual spot with her head on Shaw's chest.

“I'm coughing a lot still. It'll wake you up.”

“I don't mind.” Root clearly still wasn't completely awake.

“You'll mind when I start coughing up a lung in five minutes.”

But Root was already asleep again.

* * *

 

The room door shutting woke her up the next time and she reached out with one arm before fully opening her eyes, checking to see if Root was still next to her.

“Over here.”

When Shaw managed to peel open her eyes, she found Root wheeling over a little cart of covered dishes.

“Breakfast in bed?” Her voice was scratchy. Seemed a bit silly, but food was food and she was starving.

“Room service breakfast. You can eat it wherever you'd like.” Though Root had pushed it right next to the bed.

Shaw managed to sit up without lapsing into a coughing fit again, and lifted one of the metal lids suspiciously. French toast. It _looked_ amazing, but she couldn't smell a damn thing right now which meant it'd probably taste like cardboard.

Root sat next to her while she ate, not particularly interested in taking any food for herself, but obligingly eating when Shaw shoved a plate of food at her. She seemed a bit far away, and not in the way she got when the Machine was talking to her. More like she'd gotten lost in some thought labyrinth inside her head.

“Should probably think about heading back soon,” Shaw said after she'd finished eating. She was enjoying the nice room, but the best way to deal with being sick was to ignore it, and it was much easier to ignore it when she was out doing things. Like shooting people.

Root’s eyes refocused as her mind came back from wherever it had wandered off to. “There's no rush. I can work from here.”

“I can't.”

“She doesn't have a new number for you.”

“Long drive. Might be one by the time we get back.”

Root didn't respond and they both sat there quietly for a few long seconds.

“I'm sorry about yesterday,” Root said at last.

Shaw hadn't decided if she was going to bring that up yet. Root had overreacted to her being in danger and punched an already incapacitated man in the face until his nose broke. And then she'd gone all pale at the sight of Shaw bleeding. Shaw knew damn well that that was lingering fear from the whole stock market disaster, but she wasn't sure how to approach it. She couldn't promise she wouldn't get hurt again, and Root never would have believed that lie.

She glanced sideways at Root to find her watching her, closely. That only made figuring out what to say harder and….

She noticed something else.

“Did you steal my hoodie? _Again_?”

Surprise, relief, and then mischief flashed across Root's face in quick order.

“Technically you lent it to me. Remember? In the car?”

She _had_ given it to Root after their bang-in-the-blizzard pit stop on the drive up, but that had been over a day ago.

“I was keeping it warm for you.” Root unzipped the hoodie revealing that she wasn't wearing anything underneath it. And yeah she'd been sleeping naked next to Shaw all night but seeing her skin framed by the dark fabric of the gaping hoodie was definitely pulling Shaw's attention.

Shaw's brain rapidly reprioritized the importance of scolding her for hoodie theft. She took in the slight smile on Root's lips and the raised eyebrow that was asking her a question she really wanted to say yes to. But….

“Fun as that sounds, I can't breathe outta my damn nose. Not really optimal conditions.”

Root flopped backwards onto the bed. “You could always watch.” One of her hands came to rest on her bare stomach, long fingers splayed out.

Tempting, but…. “Maybe another time.” Shaw felt a little achy. Better not be the flu; she didn't have time for that bullshit.

Root propped herself up on her elbows to peer at her. Shaw could tell she had something on her mind, though she had no clue what it was.

“The roads are all covered with snow still,” Root said. “Impassable. It'll be hours before they’re cleared.”

“Which means we're stuck here.”

“Doesn't have to be a bad thing. You can get some rest.”

That was rich coming from her.

“Not really tired.” And there wasn't much else she could do here. Not even Root at the moment.

“Could put the tv on,” Root offered. She sat up fully and started looking around, presumably for the remote.

Shaw eyed her suspiciously. “Don't you have work to do or something?”

“It can wait a few hours.”

Root gave up on the remote and leaned back on her elbows again. She looked a bit frustrated.

“What?” Shaw asked. She wasn't going to play guessing games when she felt gross.

“I'm not sure what we're supposed to do now.” She looked almost embarrassed.

Shaw was lost. “Wait for the roads to clear and then get back to work?”

“Yes, but…” Root flopped back onto the bed, which caused her hoodie to spill open around her in a distracting way. “Shouldn't we...I mean what do people normally do when they're alone together?”

“They, uh…” How the fuck was she supposed to know? “Beats me. Probably really dumb stuff.”

Root’s expression was dangerously close to a pout now.

“We've just, you know, hung out or whatever in my apartment lots of times,” Shaw pointed out. “Didn't do anything in particular.”

The times she could remember weren’t vivid, exciting memories, but they were calm and, well, okay, they were nice. Quiet moments without unnecessary expectations. Maybe one of them was reading a book and the other was working, or Root was chatting softly with the Machine and Shaw was watching tv. The only reason it was weird now was because Root was overthinking things again.

They both sat there, contemplating their combined uselessness in silence.

“Get your laptop,” Shaw said, an idea forming. “Bring it over here.”

Root looked like she was going to ask why, but then she shrugged and got up. By the time she got back, Shaw had rearranged the pillows against the headboard and propped herself up on them. Root stood next to the bed, uncertain.

“Come here.” Shaw spread her legs and patted the bed between them. She glared at Root. “I mean sit here, Root. Stop leering at me when I'm sick.”

Root was a bit hesitant when she moved to sit against Shaw, her back pressed into Shaw's front. And Shaw would admit it was a little weird for her, too. This wasn't generally her thing, but she felt cold and sick and a bit achy and Root was warm and soft up against her. They sat there quietly for a few minutes, both a little stiff.

“Thought you had work to do,” Shaw said finally, reaching around Root to tap her laptop meaningfully.

“Right.” Root shifted around to find a comfortable position to prop her laptop up to work. She slid down a little and Shaw used the opportunity to put her chin on Root’s shoulder so she could see over her.

“Tell me what you're working on,” Shaw prompted. Without thinking, she moved one hand onto Root's side under her hoodie. Root's skin radiated warmth through her fingers.

“Really?” Root asked. “You want to hear about optimizing code? Not the most interesting thing ever.”

“You like it.”

Root was silent for a long minute. “It's about making things more efficient. Even when the output is correct, sometimes there's a better way to do it. Faster and less convoluted.”

“I can appreciate that.” Efficiency could never be overrated in Shaw's opinion. “So tell me what you're working on.”

Root fell silent again, fingers still on the laptop keys. Shaw could see the slight frown on her face out of the corner of her eye.

“If you don't want to, you can just work or whatever,” Shaw said finally.

She started to withdraw her hand, but Root stopped her before she could pull away.

“No, it's not that. I just...don't usually have anyone to talk to about things like this. Things I like.” Her fingers tapped a rhythm on the side of her laptop. “Except for Her, of course. You asked why I liked having Her here listening all the time. I wasn't used to it, to having someone to talk to who would actually listen. Sometimes I'd wonder if…” She trailed off.

It was one of those moments of open honesty that Root so rarely allowed, and while Shaw wasn't sure how to respond, she definitely appreciated what it meant that Root was willing to share things like this with her.

“Well, I'm sick and pinned down right now so you’ve currently got a captive audience.” She made sure her tone was light and joking. “And anyway this stuff--” She motioned at Root's laptop. “--is kinda badass in its own way, you know?”

“Careful, Shaw, or someone will mistake you for a nerd.” It was good to hear the humor back in Root's voice, proof that they'd moved away from more complicated topics.

“With you around for comparison? Unlikely.” She tried to nip at Root's neck, but was interrupted by another coughing fit.

“This can't be comfortable for you when you're coughing like that.” Root made as if to get up.

Shaw tightened her arm around her. “I'll live. Now quit stalling and show me what you're working on already.”

She saw a hint of a smile, fragile and uncertain, on Root's lips and then Root settled against her more firmly and pulled up a window on her screen. “So this is some of what was on the hard drive, and I mean just look at this. It's like they never even agreed on basic style conventions even though they were all working on the same thing. You'd think they could take five seconds to discuss bracket placement, but apparently not. It's a complete mess, and...”

Neither of them noticed when it started snowing again.


End file.
